Chongyuan Du

Media/Medium: Oil&Wax on Canvas
Dimensions (L x W x H): 20x24 inches
Weight: 5 lbs

Artist Statement:

"As someone who experienced a plethora of emotional issues for a large portion of my adolescence, I eventually learned to compartmentalize them so that I could coexist with them without causing extra damage. Doing this allowed me to be a second hand witness of myself, detaching my consciousness from my emotions as a coping method. Thus, I’m creating work that uses interactions between simplified forms of objects and birds to explain the experience of living with mental illness. The objects are rational, and often reference childhood and joy, while the birds intimate irrationality, interacting with each other in a blend of reality and imagination.
In my opinion, beauty gives people a feeling of protection, thus I’m using a predominately desaturated colour scheme in my series to create a dreamlike setting. The works are painted in a great number of layers, with the base layer being a bright, vivid colour that gradually desaturates with each additional layer of complementary colours. This results in a painting that from a distance appears lacking colour but upon further inspection, the surface reveals more vivid colours beneath. Additionally, the imagery of the objects exist in a reduced form, creating an unclear state of reality adding to the surreal elements of the work. Aside from keeping the composition from feeling too grounded, this process mimics how mental illness slowly eats away one's ability to feel joy, and distorts the memories of more joyful times. The elements of the paintings are arranged on the canvas in a way that does not create a sense of urgency, but rather encourages the viewer to explore the components looking for their connection to the work. The erratic mark making and the softness of the canvas resembles the emotional instability I feel when contemplating the fragility and brutality of life."