Tactile Fragment (II), Oil on Canvas, 96x120cm, 2023, Sonia Jia
This painting captures a scene from the movie "The Flowers of War," depicting a moment before the Japanese military's forced recruitment of comfort women. The scene portrays the sweeping of a church where girls had sought shelter. In this particular scene, two women dressed in cheongsams are shown tightly embracing each other as they hide.
Echoing Melody , Oil on Canvas, 170x235cm, 2023, Sonia Jia
The imagery of this painting is inspired by two films, "Spirits' Homecoming" and "The Flowers of War," both of which were shot from the perspective of comfort women during the World War II era. The central scene of the painting is taken from "Spirits' Homecoming," depicting a moment where girls gather together to listen to one of them sing. As the thirteen female protagonists in "The Flowers of War" also came together to sing a final song, Sonia Jia was moved by the implicit, nationality-agnostic emotion of seeking solace in each other's embrace amidst pain. Thus, while creating the scene from "Spirits' Homecoming," elements representing the accessories worn by the women from "The Flowers of War" were subtly incorporated. This delicate amalgamation intertwines the two different narratives.