Wen Chia-Ning:Of Mice and Women

15 July - 5 August 2023 BACK_Y

"A person wearing high heels twists their body ninety degrees, with their head passing through their crotch to look at you. Strong legs are highlighted from this angle, and fishnet stockings almost turn into iron wires, even resembling blood vessels. Time freezes, and the imagined image becomes three-dimensional. Everyone's bodies and hands disappear, and their heads are directly attached to their crotches, connecting to their legs. For some, this may be a nightmare, but at the same time, it is a dream filled with nudity and fetish elements—a combination that elicits extreme resistance and desire." - Kevin You

 

One day, I came to New York through a travel grant program from the Ministry of Education's Youth Development Administration. In the hot summer apartment kitchen, I was cooking noodles. A little mouse poked its small eyes out of the stove and looked at me, causing me to spend more time turning the flame on and off. The painter behind me said, "Just turn on the fire. Mice aren't as dumb as you think." At that time, there were even more unknowns about myself. I didn't know what the space inside the stove looked like, nor did I know whether my creative desires were more anti-aesthetic or anti-intellectual. But when it comes to desire, I collected many books, as someone once described it, "It's okay if you don't understand it at first, read it a few more times, and you might understand it." I returned to Taipei with books that I could barely carry, dropping them crazily, along with my emotions. When facing painting, the parts I couldn't understand fascinated me even more. And when creating alone, I could engage in conversations with the unfamiliar self.

Looking at the ladies printed on betel nut boxes or the female figures in TV commercials, why do these artificial "women" have such similar smiles? I capture them and quickly flip through the images, freezing their smiles. These figures are preserved in a shaking manner, attracted by the restless images in the media. I pick them up and depict them. During my journey, enticed by scraps of paper on the ground, I pause my busy thoughts and use my hands to sort through these alluring images that arouse desires and perplex me. Compared to being trapped by the evil expectations of gender, I want to use creation as a gentle reminder. But to express this goodwill, like a mouse navigating between the stove, being cared for by the flickering flames. If goodwill can actively hunt (Good Will Hunting), then mice are indeed impossible without a plan. Through painting and video installations, I blur the boundaries of the body and image, attacking the audience with those ambiguous and disturbing character images. With a transcendent and relaxed aggressiveness, I use fake fire to interrogate the viewers.