This painting is a self portrait I called ‘A Third World’. In it, I address the two very different ideologies—capitalism and communism. Through the painting I mix the ideologies of personal and cultural identity together to combine a major point in my life with who I am. The gold-leaf third eye symbolizes the inner world in Eastern thought. It is in the shape of San Francisco as it was first mapped. I used the San Francisco in this painting because translated, it means “old gold mountain.” This was the main destination for Chinese immigrants. By contrast, I wore a red scarf and Mao button which represented Communist China.My painting makes relevance to me because at a younger age, when I had almost finished my education, I was forced to be re-educated along with thousands of other educated citizens as a part of the Cultural Revolution. I was then sent to the felids to pick rice for four years. During this time, I experienced a change in maturity in myself. My eyes were opened to a lot of things that make mark in my paintings. The sad faces I paint in my paintings, along with my own self portrait, are sad with out hope like the faces of Chinese woman going at hard labor.
I overlay my paintings with illustrations, paintings and prints. The images I then overlay with washes and drips. These are all symbols of past and present things throughout my life. I also use traditional Chinese symbols of birds, butterflies, fish, dragonflies etc. I draw these on to accentuate the printed images. I painted my eyes in a format which no-matter which ways you look at my eyes, or which angle you are one, you can never quite catch them as you can in most other paintings. I do this with most of my paintings to give the character depth and make it seem as if there is a lot more to her that what you see. The way I am dressed in this painting elaborates on my background and the culture I come from. The exploitation on woman has been customary in China. Women go un-noticed and are rare that they are valued highly. This image provokes just another girl in a crowd who nobody knows or cares about. The look on her face shows sadness which relates to a lot of the girls that grew up in this time in China.
This portrait I painted called “peaches” is based on a historical photograph of a prostitute that I discovered in a Beijing archive in 1991. Although I did not paint this of myself, in many ways it labels my personality through the entwined images and emotions I specifically added into the art work of the girl. The colours I used in the painting are very warm and awakening tones. Although the girl does not seem of this feeling, it’s as though she is blinded by the beauty all around her. I painted her in a more cool purple tone to give her a cold and heart-frozen appeal. With the birds provoking music to the ears, the flowers blossoming to show the miracles of life, and the fruits serving as a symbolic meaning of ‘the fruits of life’, I painted it this way to have a cheery effect and awaken those who are feeling dull to the nature dancing all around them.
I painted this with the memory in mind of the hardship I had to personally face during the Chinese Cultural Revolution when I spent four years in intense labor. The lack of creative expression lead me to deeper thoughts and pity for other laborers. It made me aware of the potential heartbreak all girls (prostitutes and myself alike) have or have had. I painted the drips of paint which almost seemed like tears being absorbed by the painting which evoke the sense of loss and disillusion as the traditional Chinese landscape adds a lyric mood to the meaning behind the painting. It’s as if I was painting a refection of myself as if the dazed eyes looked into nothingness, while the fall season was sprinkling its magic everywhere around me. Throughout the painting I constantly collaged images and symbols mainly of plants, flowers, birds and painterly drips and circles. Into most of my prints I usually collage representations of ID cards, permits and ration coupons that have documented my official status associated with these portraits.
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