Wenyi Pan
Wenyi Pan (b.1998) is a Chinese artist currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. She has a BA in Public Art received from the China Academy of Art, and she is graduating from MFA program at the Glasgow School of Art. Wenyi’s artworks focus on sculptures and installations mainly related to female situations. Her works have been exhibited in various cities, including Hangzhou, Beijing, Carrara and Glasgow. With the concern about participation and mental impact of artwork towards the public, Wenyi also engages in community art and has held several art workshops in both China and Scotland as the organizer and facilitator.
Wenyi Pan’s current practice is concerned with narratives of individual stories, especially regarding female dilemmas, which allude to a more complex collective memory. Her installation works strive for the balance between direct and illusive, private and public when rewriting these issues. Wenyi researches and practices a restrained approach to alienating these social dilemmas, mixing reality with fiction in space. She aims to let the silence and the restrained re-presentation of artworks become a medium for the viewer to perceive metaphor and acquire knowledge.
April
April (2023) is a space – a continuous and overlapping space. It consists of three parts: fictional archival texts (‘Archives’), sculptures that mimic relics (‘Discoveries’), and a film (‘Documentary’).
April can be seen as a museum’s theme gallery, where rumours, objects and stories about women’s menstruation are stored. In a pedagogical, restrained way, it leads the viewer to reflect on the complex relationship between official knowledge, false knowledge, and individual experience relating to the female body.
13/04/2022, 21:00 – 14/04/2022, 9:58: Solo Violin
13/04/2022, 21:00 – 14/04/2022, 9:58: Solo Violin (2023) is a memory of a violinist who committed suicide during the pandemic lockdown.
The relationship between official history and individual memory is explored in this work through the contrast of large and regular steel and small ceramic clues.
The steel surface is punched with random holes and knocked to create a texture that resembles goose bumps, suggesting a potential for restlessness and collapse.
In its precarious position, the dialogue between the ceramic violin head and the pancreas seems to speak of a vulnerability that has nothing to do with individual identity under the collective trauma.
Not a single red petal
Not a single red petal (2022) reflects on the presentation and symbolisation of female issues in modern society. Various materials are placed together; a complex yet calm space is presented. Vertical lines of metal gather the forbidden and spoken symbols of female, standing on top of pure wax and dust collected in Glasgow – these symbolic elements and the potential of burning hint at countless unspoken and hidden female situations. The unknown flowers are placed high and low, alike and distant. Through the movement of light and shadow, the work reveals a sense of mystery and a glimmer of hope.
