My Mirrored Realm 7
Huang Ying
黄莺
Production date
2011
Object Detail
Media
digital pigment print
Measurements
141 x 300 cm
Notes
In this work from a photographic series, nude female bodies (the artist herself) are adrift on a floating island of ice, a frozen wasteland which also contains pavilion-like structures, some collapsed. The ice, she says, is a metaphor for both the destruction of the natural world, and also to a world of psychological loneliness, where she says, ‘the natural environment is destroyed, and people isolated in each other’s indifference.’ According to curator Huang Du, ‘The “mirrored realm” in Huang Ying’s art, not so much as a quest for the self, is more of a free terrain fabricated in the artist’s mind, a utopia that she has long aspired to, an idealized place realized through technical aesthetics, a simulated spiritual home. In such practice Huang attempts to spot new possibilities at the junction of the self and the world, the real and the simulated, time and space. Facing a world where the self gradually dissolves, Huang questions the meaning of existence. She is fascinated by the body, a highly personal, and private medium, and by the body’s infinite malleability. She transports the body into a simulated realm, creating a blurry terrain between dream and reality, much akin to the poetic aesthetics in traditional Chinese ink paintings. The iceberg, the Great Wall, or the icy oceans in her photographs are spiritual terrains that could be both travelled and dwelled upon. The hairs on her body do not stand in opposition to nature, but rather, serve as an extension of nature. They are genuine, pristine, lighthearted and full of poetry.’ (Huang Du, ‘My Mirrored Realm: The Free Territory of Huang Ying's Art’)
Accession number
2012.041