Liao Wen 廖雯
The Galaxy Turns My Pocket Inside Out 我从口袋里掏出银河, 2024
hand-carved and painted limewood, stainless steel, nylon fishing net, natural gemstone beads, glass beads, copper threads, sediments from the canals of Venice 手工雕刻和上色椴木，不锈钢，尼龙渔网，天然石，琉璃石，铜线，威尼斯河道的沉积物
Main body 主体: 108 x 167 x 68 cm; 42 1/2 x 66 x 27 in
Site-specific installation 场域特定装置: 272 x 452 x 180 cm; 107 x 178 x 71 in (dimension variable 尺寸可变)
Site-specific installation 场域特定装置: 272 x 452 x 180 cm; 107 x 178 x 71 in (dimension variable 尺寸可变)
Further images
A kneeling figure, with its upper body propped up by limbs, is caught in the middle of a torrent of chaos, a messy universe birthed from its peristaltic instinct to...
A kneeling figure, with its upper body propped up by limbs, is caught in the middle of a torrent of chaos, a messy universe birthed from its peristaltic instinct to expel foreign substances (or feelings). The hybrid creature takes after the serpent of Vishnu, the remainder after the flood, and simultaneously, the insurer of the universe’s rebirth – also known as the Kundalini which wraps itself around the base of one’s spine.
The abject, as theorised by Julia Kristeva, manifests in the spontaneous visceral reaction to the threat of a breakdown in meaning due to the loss of the distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’. When our bodily boundaries confuse what’s inside and outside, the galaxy becomes a metaphor for what is enclosed in us and what swaddles us amid the vastness of the universe. Allowing the feeling of disgust to gain control of the body, the work contends with the ambivalence of residues – how do we define the defiled and the sacred, the obscene and the pure?
The abject, as theorised by Julia Kristeva, manifests in the spontaneous visceral reaction to the threat of a breakdown in meaning due to the loss of the distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’. When our bodily boundaries confuse what’s inside and outside, the galaxy becomes a metaphor for what is enclosed in us and what swaddles us amid the vastness of the universe. Allowing the feeling of disgust to gain control of the body, the work contends with the ambivalence of residues – how do we define the defiled and the sacred, the obscene and the pure?