Revealing, 2021

Oil on canvas 60in(152.4cm)×72in(182.9cm) Similar to painting "The Ineluctable Weight of Lightness", this is one of my recent paintings that blur the categories of figuration and abstraction. Within this group of paintings, I utilize themes of pattern, space, and light in relation to the human body to discuss and critique the constructions of systems of belief. Looking closer at this piece, each pattern of this painting could be read as two people hugging each other or one person crossing hands in front of his body. The accumulation of this pattern addresses the ambiguity of individual and collective. As an artist who has lived in both China and America, conflicts between individualism and collectivism have constantly been torturing my mental and physical life; this situation has become unbearable. But, deep down in my heart, I still believe in the possibility of maintaining the balance of individual and collective. In this painting, I am addressing my feelings of being oppressed by the conflicts between individualism and collectivism while looking for a place that could maintain the harmony of both.