Wanhang /Chao

Artist Statement

My digital paintings represent a reality observed through my familial roles, identity, gender and memory. With intuitions, I create metaphorical spaces populated by female characters, embodying my uncanny perceptions of intimacy under a pressured kinship origin. Some spaces can be found in reality, for example, Park (2020) is from a real-life park in Shanghai; In this space, the human figures, and their environments are disassembling and distorting, questioning the legitimacy of "normal." Here, common sense is perceived as an illusion and byproduct of a utilitarian society functioning like machinery, including norms of being alive and dead. To depict a scene, merely sketching its physical shapes would omit too much; observations, though seemingly objective, are deeply influenced by subjective notions that compelled myself to reconstruct this corner of reality as I genuinely "saw" it. The memories, experiences, and cognition have shaped me, only by integrating these aspects was I able to truly understand and depict a scene's concept at a certain moment. The moments in mind and in the present are beyond mortal, as I believe time is not linear. These works are produced as a challenge to the dominant materialistic views and rationalist education system within my cultural context, positioning consciousness as an essential aspect of reality.

Biography

Born in Tianjin, China, in 1999, Wanhang Chao initially trained in sketching, watercolor, and traditional Chinese painting. Later, as an Economics student at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics (SUFE), she embraced digital art as the most efficient medium for her then. Her interest was to explore a redefined reality, visions present in the mind yet invisible in the physical world. Her works with female characters were produced for making up her cognition towards her identity, as a challenge to the dominant materialistic notions and the rationalist education system in her cultural environment, positioning consciousness as a component of reality.
 
Her graduate studies in Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York gave her places to engage with concepts such as surrealism, animism, feminism, and phenomenology. In her thesis exhibition, she was inspired by “She Unnames Them” by Ursula K. Le Guin, telling a fictional story of animals of the world having their names removed, reflecting relationships without given labels, and attempting to reinterpret and express traditional narratives through the female lens. She currently is continuing her creation process in painting along with her role as a curator, and critically thinks through the two perspectives.

Park_2020_Digital Painting_40.16 x 18.50 inches
Lighthouses_2020_Digital Painting_37.00 x 19.93 inches
Field_2020_Digital Painting_35.80 x 17.02 inches
Triangle_2021_Digital Painting_30.77 x 15.52 inches
Cradle_2022_Digital Painting_20.7 x 12.63 inches
Not Sinking_2022_Digital Painting_41.34 x 23.89 inches