Jessica Lin
Sydney Girls High School
CONFUCIUS IS A FRAUD AND I WISH I KNEW THAT SOONER
Painting
Oil on canvas
My body of work expresses a personal disillusionment with conservative Chinese values that are, in my own experience, too polarised to reconcile with my experience as a second-generation immigrant. I have explored the resultant profound anxiety and self-hatred through the appropriation of religious imagery, using the division between ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’, and the image of Confucius, whose teachings are engraved on the consciousness of every East-Asian person. The work represents how the traditional values that emphasise societal conformity and filial piety, resulting in the unambiguous distinction between ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’, become a condemnation of individual expression.
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the artist Octave Tassaert, Heaven and Hell.
Marker's Commentary
This grand diptych has been painted with accomplishment and vision and is extraordinarily ambitious both in scale, orientation and conceptual intent. Organised vertically, it evokes a sense of awe in the staged, imaginary dialogue between Christian and Chinese belief systems. Demonstrating strong classical influences, the work pays homage to the biblical depictions of Renaissance masters. This is evident in the depiction of different terrains and in the figurative portrayals suggesting an ethereal spirituality and emotional humanity. Dominant in the painting is the representation of Confucius rising in the clouds and transcending the limitations of earthly life, his form floating amidst billowing mists that have been painted with tonal control and layered gusto. An evocative backdrop of vertical pinnacles, rugged mountains and valleys, painted in the Chinese Shan Shui style reveals itself in the shifting play of light and shadow. It evokes the landscape of the mind and inner spirit of the artist. The emotional subtext of the painting is strengthened by genuine risk-taking in the composition and in the fluid romantic precision. Great sky and atmospheric voids offer contrasting characters of redemption above and torment below while each void is populated with writhing groups of cherubs or the damned. The virtuosity of paint application of the heavenly cosmos makes the space in the painting seem as big as the world itself. The artist’s expertise extends to the gentle facial expression of Confucius, the anatomical knowledge in depicting the lively composition of bodies in movement as well as the finesse demonstrated in proportion and perspective. Each figure appears to be truly made of flesh and blood. The painting has the capacity to stop viewers in their tracks, stimulating their imaginations. It does not present one set of ideas alone but with its complexity and visual contradictions offers a sense of mystery, conjuring tales from different continents, times, religions and experiences.