MY SINCERE MISINTERPRETATION 誠．傳

My Sincere Misinterpretation is a series of work emerged during the artist’s MFA study in CUHK. It marks the journey of her doubts and collision towards the intake of traditional Chinese Art practices, and formed one of her creative styles.

During her studies on Traditional Chinese Art, as advised by her supervisor, she started practicing “copying” which is deemed as a useful and important way of learning Chinese painting. However, when she was copying the ancient work, the distance between me and the ancient painter whom I imagined became distinctly clear which caused her to wonder the significance of copying, even more, the relations between herself and the ancient work, its painter, and “Chineseness”.

Our perspectives in the present times form our understanding towards tradition and history. Misinterpretation or reinterpretation often takes place due to data loss to the explanation of certain content in the past. As some historical spaces cannot be filled up, she creates answers for her wonders towards the ancient paintings by reinterpreting the work: building up another space with her own imaginations on the ancient work by superimposing other images. The execution of superimposition creates constant reconstruction and deconstruction of both of the pictures in the ancient work and hers, this practice enabled her to wander among lines.

Confucius said, “Wandering in art”. Xu Fuguan in his book “Zhongguo Yishu Jingshen” pointed out that “wander” means rove about, travel and play. In Chinese art, it embodies a kind of utterly free spiritual liberation. The constant deconstruction and reconstruction of forms and lines become a game of self-answering and an endless spiritual travel.

Artwork