Untitled, Epoksi Resin, Pearls, 25cm* 12.7cm* 100cm, 2023
Affirmations In The Mutter
缄默中的断⾔, 2023
In my past endeavors, in addition to focusing specifically on the somatic perception of pain and the perception of time in women with chronic illnesses, I've also delved into how everyday natural elements (such as herbs, water, and light) can serve as potential therapies for pain. I aim to explore how to offer new pathways of perceiving nature for chronic patients within the framework of illness perception, and how to distill and establish loosely intertwined structures with the natural world through artistic practice within limited mobility and space, ensuring safety while facilitating experiences.
Herbs with estrogenic components are often enmeshed in a specific narrative shaped by the white colonial patriarchy, intertwined with "pure" nature, feminine deities, and connections to facilitating (heterosexual) reproductive functions. Humans continually transform nature through culture out of fear, leading ecological discourse to result in colonial and binary relationships between nature and culture. The best way to dismantle cultures is not by attempting to erase their gods and goddesses, rituals, and myths, but by fully absorbing them. As Starhawk mentioned in "The Spiral Dance," what gives potency to the goddess tradition is its relevance to us now, in the present, rather than whether others worshipped this specific image in the past.
I regard this series as a site of resistance, experimentation, and negotiation, reconstructing and deconstructing their original forms based on the narrative logic connecting plants to women's pathologies. Through emulating the techniques of the divine "creators," I seek to re-present them, reimagining and inscribing the connections between such herbs, diseases, embodiment, and sensory experiences. My practice emerges from a profound spiritual commitment to the connections between the body, healing, and the interplay of magic and political action.
Artist statement
Zou Wenqi (b.1999), a cross-media artist, researcher, and curator, currently residing in London and holding a Master's degree in Research Fine Art & Humanities from the Royal College of Art. Her artistic practice, encompassing sensory painting, sculpture, and moving images, establishes a coordinate system centered around "image-body-medium," expanding the understanding of images and their interconnected practices. Her current artistic endeavors, rooted in material feminism and queer botany, underscore the encounters of female bodily structures and materials within biomedicine.
Her current humanistic research focuses on the politics of female identity and public healthcare issues, exploring how individual narrative practices can extend and alter established recording patterns and representations of the perceptual experiences of chronically ill patients' bodies, sensory language, and cyclical temporal aspects. She currently serves as a resident researcher at the Iceland Visual Artists Association and her works have been exhibited at venues including London's Southwark Park Gallery, Shanghai's X Museum Himalayas, Paris' Galerie Francis Barlier, and Iceland's Newwave Space.
**Educational Background:**
- 2021: Royal College of Art, UK - Master of Research Fine Art & Humanities
- 2019: Hongik University, South Korea - Visual Communication & Fine Art
- 2017: Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, China - Bachelor of Fine Art in Public Art
- 2021: Royal College of Art, UK - Master of Research Fine Art & Humanities
- 2019: Hongik University, South Korea - Visual Communication & Fine Art
- 2017: Hubei Academy of Fine Arts, China - Bachelor of Fine Art in Public Art
**Exhibitions:**
- 2023: "Fast Forward? Rewind," Young Space, Chongqing, China
- 2023: "Public Private," Newwave Art Space, Reykjavik, Iceland
- 2023: "Art Capital," Grand Palais Ephémère, Paris, France
- 2023: "It's Time," Francis Barlier Gallery, Paris, France
- 2022: "Metamorphosis of Rhythm," X Museum Himalayas, Shanghai, China
- 2022: "Omitted Reference," The Art Pavilion, London, UK
- 2021: "Unruly Encounter," Southwark Park Gallery, London, UK
- 2021: "Urban Recovery - Public Art Expression in the Post-Epidemic Era," M+ Art Space, Wuhan, China
- 2019: Art Fair, Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, Guangzhou, China
- 2023: "Fast Forward? Rewind," Young Space, Chongqing, China
- 2023: "Public Private," Newwave Art Space, Reykjavik, Iceland
- 2023: "Art Capital," Grand Palais Ephémère, Paris, France
- 2023: "It's Time," Francis Barlier Gallery, Paris, France
- 2022: "Metamorphosis of Rhythm," X Museum Himalayas, Shanghai, China
- 2022: "Omitted Reference," The Art Pavilion, London, UK
- 2021: "Unruly Encounter," Southwark Park Gallery, London, UK
- 2021: "Urban Recovery - Public Art Expression in the Post-Epidemic Era," M+ Art Space, Wuhan, China
- 2019: Art Fair, Pazhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, Guangzhou, China
**Residencies:**
- 2020: "Beyond the Railings," Guerrilla War No.3, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
- 2023: Iceland Visual Artists Association Sim Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland
- 2020: "Beyond the Railings," Guerrilla War No.3, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
- 2023: Iceland Visual Artists Association Sim Residency, Reykjavik, Iceland
**Awards:**
- 2022: Kolkata International Film Festival - Outstanding Achievement Award
- 2022: Kolkata International Film Festival - Outstanding Achievement Award
**Interviews:**
- 2019: Mental Magazine - Miss Quarantina, Spain
- 2019: Mental Magazine - Miss Quarantina, Spain
**Screenings:**
- 2020: Essay Film on Urban Geography, Micro Line Space, Wuhan, China
- 2021: International Image Culture Promotion Association - 2nd New Author Salon, Light Drive Space, Beijing, China
- 2023: "If Splash As Your Whistle," Goldsmith CCA Gallery, London, UK
- 2020: Essay Film on Urban Geography, Micro Line Space, Wuhan, China
- 2021: International Image Culture Promotion Association - 2nd New Author Salon, Light Drive Space, Beijing, China
- 2023: "If Splash As Your Whistle," Goldsmith CCA Gallery, London, UK