DUAL IDENTITY.
The Language of Materials: Memory and Identity in Contemporary Art examines the interplay between identity and cultural heritage by exploring different materials and cultural collective experiences. Ya Juan’s experience incorporating contemporary techniques through her creation of large-scale oil paintings, soft sculptures and silk ink paintings. The work bridges Eastern and Western aesthetics, reflecting on themes of childhood trauma and history, with particular emphasis on the tension and harmony experienced in care. Combining traditional Chinese materials such as silk and ink with contemporary art practices.
Ya Juan is an artist and a Master’s student at the RMIT University in Australia. The project explores the contemporary world and the fluidity of identity/culture, exploring the complex relationships between materials such as layering, painting, silk and ink, fabric and stitching to allude to the relationship between identity and culture.
This research project investigates the complexities of identity, memory, and belonging as a Chinese-born artist living in Australia, through large-scale oil painting on linen, soft sculpture on wool, ink and watercolour on silk, and other traditional medium, and visual art story weave narrative of childhood trauma, cultural artefacts such as the Mona Lisa as well as landscapes from both China and Australia, the artworks bridge Eastern and Western aesthetics. I aim to explore how materials and cultural symbols can represent the fluidity in globalised world.
