Jiaqi Wu
Booklet: Afternoons
I have always found the view outside my window attractive. I translated my thoughts about the current events surrounding quarantine into a series of scenery drawings. During this period of isolation, I developed my first thesis study for my undergraduate exhibition. As an artist I wanted to draw the most memorable moment of my day so that people who saw my drawings could feel the warmth and comfort I felt.
Quarantine time often makes people feel anxious, that is why I want to do something to help people feel better. I suffered with it myself for a period of time, during quarantine . Eventually, I noticed that when I spend time in nature and sunlight it makes me feel safe and confident. When the afternoon sunlight pours in through my window and shines on the wooden floor, with shadows of trees and leaves, me in a way similar to meditating. Through this realization, I was able to achieve a level of self healing. It helped me to get through the situation. In my drawings, I wanted my viewers to feel the same warmth and tranquility. I wanted the audience to feel the comfort that I get when I look outside your window.
I returned to my pictures, looking for elements that could help people feel calm. It turned out that natural lighting and views from outside my window played a big part in those pleasing scenes. I realized that natural elements from outside the home are important to people who spend prolonged periods indoors. The landscapes from outside the home dictates what we see from inside our homes. I would like to study the consequences of building a landscape, and how it could impact people’s feelings. So, my drawings are a study of those elements and the recreation of those scenes and how they heal people. I want my art to be helpful to people. I am interested in the exploration of “Healing art”. Pastel is what I am using. The soft edges and dreamy quality could be a support for archiving my goal.
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Jiaqi Wu, Desired Night View, Soft pastel, 2019, 18x24inch
My works often explore the joy of life. In art history or contemporary “mainstream” of the art world, the topics are sometimes critical. During the covid-19 pandemic, many people suffered and hardly lived. When the outside world is full of sadness: violence, inequality, subjugation, and virus, people need to remind themselves that the world still has joy and beauty. We need the cure. I would like to introduce a point of view that is playful and beautiful and has elements of blur, imaginary, but also reminiscent. When it looks familiar, it could bring up memory. To look at this image, it may be helpful for the viewers to imagine the world/future otherwise and forget about the sadness in the world for a moment.