PREFACE
Confluence can refer to a point at which two or more bodies of water merge to form a single channel or it can be used to mean the blurring of boundaries between individual people, leading to a sense of oneness.
These dual-fold concepts conflate two major creative influences during my residency: the joining together of the 3 rivers in the immediate locality near the Museum of Art, and my encounter of The Butterfly Lovers, a legend founded in Ningbo. The story, though ancient, contains aspects which are pertinent today,such as personal identity, female emancipation, the power of transformation and travel as a means of furthering knowledge and understanding. The story involves the eventual union of two young lovers whose metamorphosis into various creatures such as mandarin ducks and butterflies metaphorically references the power of transformation.
I have enjoyed the visual abundance contained within the story which has enabled me to celebrate colour and to delight in the portrayal of mythical characters.
My sculptural work takes as its inspiration, the movement of water observed at the meeting point of the 3 rivers: Yuyao Jiang, Yongjiang and Fenghua Jiang.These rivers, with their own individual power and opposing directions, create a crisis point of disruption, confusion and conflict, eventually establishing a single harmonious flow. I use my feet on wet clay and graphite on paper to create equivalent surface patterns, metaphorically drawing connections between the movement of water and the meeting of people. The area of Lao Wai Tan has historically been a site of many meetings of peoples from all over the world and is a fitting site for the creative representation of this union.