fengwuchao artist web
Title: Pearls of Wisdom
Date: 2022-23
The unrefined misshapen pearls depict unspeakable traumas through the feminine metaphor of pearls, born of time, nature, and heart. The artist often experiences a sort of aphasia when attempting to articulate her trauma, especially those attached to her female identity. The weight of these mixed feelings silences her voice, while the language and cultural barrier makes it even harder as an outsider. Gradually, a pearl has formed out of the silence and endurance in her heart.
As flawed byproducts of pearl cultivation in her hometown, these pearls have been rearranged and translated into another natural and transcultural language, beyond the bounds of perfection or imperfection. All the lines, cracks and holes that appear on the pearl must be telling us something about the life of the clam, the trauma, and the urgency of collective care.The material ‘emits’ language as if it is already embedded in its very cellular structure. All she’s doing is drawing out the poetic and powerful statements that are already there in a state of potential.
装置以珍珠为喻,拼写出那些内心深处的难言之隐。珍珠是时间、自然和心的产物,是接受异物、转化共存的自我和解之旅。这些特殊的字母珍珠多是人工养殖中不尽人意的、廉价的瑕疵品,重新收集组合后却成了另一种自然语言,无关完美或是瑕疵。The Pearl是一场自白也是一面镜子,或是自我或是群体,或是矛盾或是和解,只是站在人生的每一个寻常的节点上,再回头看,那些苦难和创伤都成了时间留给我最锐利的箴言。


Recognition without Control
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
Lightbox,
120x180 cm, 3 Editions + 1 AP
Intimacy without Mastery
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
Lightbox,
120x180 cm, 3 Editions + 1 AP




Pearl Pond
(Slide to see more)


Till Your Tears Mixed up with Mine
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
Photography, Epson ultra giddy print on Hahnemuhle photo rag baryta,
110x180 cm, 3 Editions + 1 AP
The Wreckage Becomes A Reef
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
Photography, Epson ultra giddy print on Hahnemuhle photo rag baryta,
110x180 cm, 3 Editions + 1 AP


Exhibition View
"Paris, Texas", SOKA Art


Perfect
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
15x40x5.5cm, 3 editions + 1 AP, 2023
Oceanic Heart
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
15x40x5.5cm, 3 editions + 1 AP, 2023


Beyond Skin
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
15x40x5.5cm, 3 editions + 1 AP, 2023
Certainty
Unrefined Misshapen Pearls,
15x40x5.5cm, 3 editions + 1 AP, 2023


Exhibition View
Nomadism, Roof Art Center
The Moon Rising Paradise, Zhi Art Museum




Trauma
Otherness
Equality
Urgency
视频内容
欲言又止,
每每到嘴边,字句像是涌起的潮水,
又愕然骤落退去。
高潮,低潮,
当我回头再看过往,
像是风暴过后的缄默,
我想要张口说什么,但又不知从何说起——
潮水带走了我的声音。
于是trauma变成了一颗颗沙子,
漏进了最柔软、最私密的内心深处。
时间、自然和心,
将百感交集孕育成了珍珠,
而我已是全然大开的牡蛎。
Video Context
clam up
words turn to tides rising to my lips
ascend and fall
faded-in, faded-out
looking back after the storm
the silence dominates
nowhere to start, nowhere to go
under the tides lays my voice
trauma injects sand into my vein of solitude
let time, nature and heart flow
harvest the pearl out of my mellow clam



