Yujing Wang

Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

qiān sī wàn lǚ (千丝万缕)

Inspired by the sky burial practised by the Tibetans, the aim of this project is to reconceptualise the relationship between my body and nature and offer alternate perspectives on the concern challenging normative western thinking. A way of questioning what we’ve been conditioned to think about life and death. Paying particular attention to how the female body mourns and how we can heal from traumatic bodily experiences. Hence, Ana Mendieta’s practice is significant in influencing my body of work. The ephemerality of her silhouette in the Siluetas Series speaks to the notion of otherness. The inevitability of the disappearance of the traces left behind also highlights the cycle of birth, growth, death and decay. In addition, touching on concepts such as abjection, rooted in her book, Power of Horror, feminist psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva (1982) names menstrual blood as abject, as that which is “ejected beyond the scope of the possible, the tolerable, the thinkable.” My final year body of work is based on Chinese culture, feminist theories, and art.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, the concept of reincarnation means the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different form/body after death. Therefore, there is no need to preserve the physical body as it is now an empty vessel. Here marks the significance of sky burial, which is the act of offering the deceased body to the scavenging vultures. Being a spectator of the ritual, it was shocking at first to be confronted with the pure impermanence of life in such a raw and rough manner. After leaving Larung Gar, I began to glimpse something deeply spiritual in this practice. Perhaps a romantic idea, although uncomfortable to witness, of an unconditional return and surrender to nature. I am engaging the landscape as a place where both life and death are in a constant state of flux. I think of death as an inevitable and necessary gateway to the unknown. As a catalyst to transformation. Death has the potential to create spaces that are celebratory and contemplative.

In a lot of photographs, the red yarn depicted talks about a Chinese mythology, where people are connected and destined to meet through an invisible red thread. Therefore, the red yarn signifies my connection with other beings and the natural world. I also used the red thread as a tool to reveal and cover myself.

I wish to approach art-making using my personal experience of being a female Chinese- South African to show a glimpse of invisible experiences by invisible communities. Through my work, I want to address just how carefully surveilled the female body is and controlled by the governing bodies, therefore, providing safe spaces where conversations regarding our reproductive rights and bodies can take place. Lastly, investigating alternative ways of being, mourning, and healing.