New Expression of Papery Medium

—— Exhibition review of The Soul is Damped

The Soul is Damped is an solo exhibition of artist Chen Fenwan and Ai Hai is the
curator. It was held at 33 Contemporary Art Center which is located in Victor Plaza 103
Tiyu West Road, Guangzhou. This exhibition was begun in September 18, 2019 and it
has ended in November 10, 2019.

The whole exhibition was divided into four portions which displayed four themes of
artworks respectively, and they were Undying, Rotary Garden, Phoenix, The soul is
damped, they showed the relation of people and world from the different perspectives
of life, seeking, ego and feeling. These artworks were displayed by the type of device
and they had close connection with their own spaces where they were installed. When
the audience entry the exhibition hall, the first thing they see will be a gold dragon
which was immersed in warm light - the first theme: Undying. The form of the dragon
seem like hovering and shuttling and it nearly occupied the whole space of the front
hall. The artist subtly translated the ground into reflective mirror material and only
showed the head of the dragon and some parts of its body. Thus, the substantial part
consist of the dragon above the ground. Moreover, a wonderful thing is the images
reflected in the mirror connect with the substantial part and they composed an
integrated dragon together. But there was not dragon tail which means there was not
an end, in this way, an unstoppable dragon was the same expression of infinite which
responded to the name of this theme - Undying. According to introduction of artist,
she treated different angles of dragon bone as a point, and in theory they can connect
with each other in infinite patterns. Only need enough time, this dragon can be done
forever as the mean of ‘undying’. All these things were put in a dark space and the
artist embellish it with faint warm light. This method of setting artworks created a
mystery and tranquil atmosphere which is suitable for the imagine of a vivid dragon.
In addition, the most notable point is the papery medium which made up of squamae
of the dragon, most of squamae were made up by oval paper and a fraction were
shape of human and hand. These special shapes like bonus scene which correspond
with the rest themes. And papery medium was the cue throughout the whole
exhibition because different ways of using various paper materials was shown in other
three themes.
Chen Fenwan, Undying, comprehensive material, 2018

The next exhibition hall is about Phoenix, it displayed a few phoenixes which was also
made up of papery medium, especially the part of feather. Not like the dragon in
Undying presented a dynamic trend, these phoenixes were displayed by a plane form.
Each phoenix was separated and hung in midair before a pink wall. So the best way to
appreciate it was standing directly opposite the work. On the other way, the theme of
Phoenix was very similar to Undying, not only because they were all almost made by a
same way - using papery medium as fundamental factor to compose a integrate
object, but also the images they represented had strong Chinese characteristics. i
Dragon and phoenix originated from totem, it was associated with the formation of
Chinese nation’s history and civilization. Chinese ancestors considered dragon and
phoenix as totem, national emblem and the symbol of happiness. The phenomenon of
dragon and phoenix worship exists broadly in various levels of society in different
periods especially in ancient society. In addition, these beautiful graphic symbols were
also widely used in jade, bronze, lacquer, wood carving and other arts and crafts.

Chen Fenwan, Phoenix, papery medium, 2017

What’s more, the use of papery medium also activated the potential emotion and
impression about the image of dragon and phoenix. On the one hand it indirectly
reflected the basic thought of the artist Chen Fenwan, she considered papery medium
as a carrier with ‘temperature’, and it means that people can easier to feel
emotional factor through the papery medium than other media. It is intrinsic
advantage of papery medium. On the other hand, it directly associate with Kirigami
which is a type of folk art in China. Kirigami was popular in ancient society in China, ii
folk paper-cut art was widely distributed and had a long history in district of Shanxi, it
had diverse style, deep connotation and it was the carrier of folk culture. People clip
on various papery medium by using scissor and burin to compose various image
which usually come from their real life or folklore such as dragon, phoenix or Kylin (a
mascot of ancient legend).

From Undying and Phoenix we can only feel the shadow of paper-cut art, it focused
more on essence of papery medium and try to expand its expressive force. But in the
other two themes - Rotary Garden and The Soul is Damped, main objects were all
produced by paper cut.

Rotary Garden was a very interactive device, it was set in a half closed hexagon room
which was cover with mirrors, from ground to all round the walls. The dimension of
mirrors on the wall was controlled in long strip of rectangles and installed in a special
form so that it can cooperate with six automatic induction rotating devices which
looks like a small tree or a bigger flower. There were discal wreaths on the bottom and
the top of each device and the top wreath was flourishing and massive, it was created
by piling up many independent hands which looks like perspective of muscle. These
hands were different with each other in terms of shape and main palm print. Before
opening of this exhibition, the artist had collected various pictures of hands on the
internet, so these paper-cut hands were from different people. As people enter the
center of the room, devices around would operate and rotate, and it means that
images in mirrors were also moving. At that moment, it looks like hundreds of flowers
rotating around just like a garden which was the artist’s intention to compose a
depth effect environment in this small space, an infinite repetition. In this theme, the
setting of mirrors and automatic devices contributed to conduct a immersive space
and enhancing interaction. The movement of rotating and palm print was the core of
this artwork, palm print indicates individual destiny in Chinese folklore and when
people talk about destiny they always say ‘The wheels of fate are turning’. So the
artist intended to give audience an subtle, sample but gorgeous experience in which
they can put themselves in a briefly isolated space and rethink about something or
just feeling charm of papery medium.

Chen Fenwan, Rotary Garden, comprehensive material, 2019

The Soul is Damped was the last theme of this exhibition, a crystal box was put in the
center of the hall, this was a light source at the bottom of the box, and the whole hall
was covered in purple light. There was a human-form papery model on the crystal
box, it looked like a human body with two faces and a few parts of it had been
hollowed out which were positions of eyes, heart, womb and stomach. Purple hue and
anatomy of a human organ made the atmosphere firstly refer to strange or weird,
except of this, there was also a row of paper-cut puppet around the whole room. They
were not identical and their joints can be move just like many various souls. The name
of the ‘soul is damped’ was based on creation background of the artist who created
these puppets was sick, but while engraving these figure by using scalpel she
gradually felt better. So it indirectly reflected an curative atmosphere while
appreciating this artwork though the first impression was prone to strange.

Chen Fenwan, The soul is damped, comprehensive material, 2019

As an solo exhibition, The Soul is Damped mainly gave public an angle of view to
appreciate artworks created by Chen Fenwan, meanwhile, a good way to know and
feel what kind of person is this artist. Chen Fenwan was a young artist who had
graduated from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and majored in printmaking
department. She explored possibilities of creating by using papery medium and
intended to release imagination. The most traditional way of creation about papery
medium was painting and paper cut. Before the contemporary art, most painting
considered papery medium as a plane which was the same as carrier of pigment and
ink. On the other hand, paper-cut had some similar to painting - most craftsman
composed figures through hollowing the papery medium, but paper-cut focused more
on essence of paper such as colour, hardness, roughness and so on. That was why
most of time paper-cut creation was used as decoration, for example, the most famous
form of paper-cut decoration was for celebrating Chinese New Year which has
impressed so many people. Chen Fenwan was such a person who firstly touched
paper-cut while accepted artistic education in childhood and in follow-up study in
university the course about handmade book completely stimulated her interests in
papery creation. Afterward, during her creative period, health problem affected her
creations, that was the reason for most of her artworks were associated with organs
and human bodies. She interpreted her experiences about creation as‘During the
time of engraving the paper, it seems like a process of healing. According to example
of Da Vinci researching human anatomy, every time I engraved the components of a
puppet it made me feel I find my soul’.（注释） So I think the name this exhibition is
suitable for introducing this artist. In addition, there was another reason for her to use
papery medium as fundamental material to compose artworks, papery medium is low-
cost and environmental. Environmental awareness was appendix of Chen Fenwan’s
creation, though it was not so obvious in this exhibition.

details of the creating scene, Chen Fenwan

Nowadays, many contemporary creations pay attention to characteristics of various

media, for example, new media art and experimental art positively use avant-garde
approaches and new material as media to express their artistic ideas. From an
objective perspective, the development of art is also an reference substance of
historical background. And it also involve material development, portable pigment lay
a foundation for out painting which led to abstractionism, industrial production and
silk-screen printing were utilized by Andy Warhol, there were so many examples like
these. Arrival and employing of new materials would diminish importance and
necessity of previous materials, papery medium is such an material. Papery medium is
widely used in book production and spreading information in previous society,
however, with the third industrial revolution electronic media are prevalent which can
undertake demonstrating graphic picture and video. More information can be saved
and transmitted are the advantage of electronic media, on the contrary, papery
medium contains less. That’s why many people are discussing the decline of papery
medium especially reflect in difficultly operating papery media industry such as
bookshops and publishing house.

In art exhibition and artistic creation, we do not have to excessively consider the
practicability and efficiency, what artists and curator need to do is try to express
opinions in their own ways. For artist Chen Fenwan, making flexible use of various
papery media is her fundamental idea. In Phoenix, using silver reflective paper so that
audience can see themselves while appreciating this artwork leads to more thinking
about other imagination. In the soul is damped, she engraved and hollowed every
components of human body and organs, and then assemble them to compose a
three-dimensional device, it was a process that composing three-dimensional artwork
by using tow-dimensional papery medium and this also embodied in her other works.
Focusing on essence of papery medium is the core of her artwork, it has similar to
pollock’s drip painting which completely display characteristics of paper and spray of
paint, though Chen Fenwa did not treat her works in a relatively pure method which
can reduce influence of exhibition experience. To the contrary, positively attempt to
collaborate with papery medium and other setting such as using of different light,
automatic devices and a mirror space. It is not only the feature of her works, but also
the extend of her imagination.

As an young artist, Chen Fenwan is an epitome of other artists who try to give new
expression or new form of a product of past, previous media or a dying art just like
paper-cut, and most of time they are rare in other areas. This generation has
experienced the alternation of the old and the new, fast development brought them
possibilities to do anything and break old restrictions. At the same time, memories
about things that was popular in the past may let them to rethink essences of these
things, moreover, give them a new expression. For artists and curators, Chen Fenwan is
also a good research example of keeping balance of artistic creation and commercial
request. Most of her artistic creations were composed in business cooperation, and
she always think work in a frame which is given by business partner can inspire her
imagination.

The artwork - Undying in commercial cooperation, Chen Fenwan, 2018

In general, this solo exhibition has displayed impressive features of this artist Chen
Fenwan. Through speciously arranging spaces of these four themes, curator and artist
gave a good experience for audience, it has successfully attracted many people to pay
attention to this artist. But in terms of completeness and logic, this exhibition still need
to be improved. Drawing attentions is a good thing, but a curator need do more
things to intensify understanding of audiences about this artist.
i
Lu Xiaoyun, 2012, The cultural implication and artistic expression of dragon and phoenix graphic symbols, Jiangsu: Journal of
Nantong University

ii
Wang Ping, 2020, The application of paper-cut in Chinese ritual and folk custom - a review on The history of Chinese folk paper-cut,
China Pulp and Paper