Talking Painting Artist’s Talk: Yvonne Feng

4/12/2024

 

In the session, Yvonne began by sharing her artistic trajectory, providing insights into the evolution of her practice. She described painting as a form of embodied seeing and an act of resistance, emphasising its potential to confront complex moral, emotional and power dynamics. Central to her earlier works is the idea of addressing the unspeakable, exploring and illustrating violence not as a direct reflection of her personal experiences but as an imaginative act. Over the time, her approach shifts towards a deeply felt engagement with the moment, incorporating her own experiences, such as her trauma of lacking agency and freedom to speak or act, which become integral to defining her distinctive artistic voice.

 

Yvonne also shared her thoughts on the relationship between painting and history. She emphasised how the colaboration of history and art can help to communicating and conneting the past with present life events. However, she described this dynamic as a dual narrative or double storytelling. It is because of the difficulty to authenticate history, makes this grey areas complex, ambiguous and open to interpretation. To illustrate her point, she referenced the events took place in Hong Kong in 2019 (Amnesty International, 2021) as an example to further demonstrade her idea.

 

I deeply resonate with Yvonne’s point of view that painting can be a political tool. When she mentioned of Hong Kong, my place of origin, struck a personal chord as I experienced those events first-hand a few years ago. Inspired by her insights, instead of solely relying on studying and reflecting others’ incidents, I have begun to reflect more critically on the subject and themes that drawn from my own encounters and emotions in everyday life in the UK. For instance, I am exploring and expressing the challenges I face as a woman and a member of a minority group. I am also as reflecting on moments of microaggression I had experienced and create paintings such as Manspreading (2024) (see figure 2.). The idea was based on my encounter on the so called “manspreading” experience in the London underground. Through these reflections, I aim to create work that speaks to the authentic narrative based on my identity and lived experience.

 

 

Reference:

Amnesty International. (2021) Hong Kong’s protests explained, Amnesty International. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/09/hong-kong-protests-explained/ (Accessed: 20 January 2025). 

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Feng, Y. (2024) I have come this far: Greener on the other side?, Yvonne Feng. Available at: https://www.yvonne-yiwen-feng.com/greener-on-the-other-side?pgid=keeayrlc-379597c4-8d38-47d8-b00c-315f1c15d436 (Accessed: 20 January 2025).