KUO YUPING

Daughters

8. 14 – 9. 12, 2021

Kuo Yuping’s latest solo exhibition “Daughters" resembles a children’s story collection composed of 16 paintings. If the works in her 2017 solo exhibition “My Little Black Book" are imaginations that were inspired by traveling the world, this newest collection can be interpreted as the artist transforming into the fictional character in the tales, reflecting the imagination and real life at the same time.

The characters within the book are placed amid the intertwinement of ancient and modern, folk and technological visuals, reality and surrealism. The imageries seem like scenes from a play: floating bodies, a house of books under a changing sky, a carefree, fearless female giant, intense gazes between the planets in the dark and things hidden deep in the rivers, the strength of an abundant goddess bolstering the battle between heaven and earth, or moments of rest of a tired butterfly, fragrance lingering in the autumn breeze.

In the laws of urban civilization and amid the unending glow before heaven and earth turn dark, all desire and knowledge are like flames, burning on top of the trapped houses that are our bodies. Through the power of imagination, the artist interprets the structure and design of the paintings: these figures are simultaneously daughters, mothers, and the artist herself.

Kuo stated: “For most of my life, I have existed in between extreme emotions, trying to find my way in a world plagued with sorrow and fire. Sometimes there is brightness, clarity, and lucidity of the mind; every place the thought touches is like a spring day with growth and bloom, a sense of ecstasy as if comprehending the laws of everything on earth. Sometimes, I fall into deep desperation and panic, with the mind in a state of dread, gloom, and paranoia, fixated in turbulence and anxiety. In times like that, the soul is trapped in a sleep of death and silence."

By weaving together her emotions with reason, Kuo finished the 16 works of “Daughters" one by one, just like writing a children’s tale for herself. The works are pieced together into an exhibition, a book with pictures and colors that flow with freedom.

Fragrance

Lisa