Up, Up, Up
By Fang Yi Wu
Artist’s Statement: Up, Up, Up
The theme of this work is the feeling of being stuck between the dream and the reality. This sculpture depicts an abstracted human form. The figure is trying to strain its limbs up, but she cannot truly float off the ground or stand up, like a beetle that’s been turned over. Alternatively, one might imagine her having just fallen from the sky—her back just touched the ground and her limbs are going to naturally droop down. People harbor lofty ideals to varying degrees, or at least once did. These ideals don't originally come from within; most are born from society. As a child I dreamed of building up the nation. I don't believe such a grand ideal just suddenly sprang from my young mind, it was likely because teachers constantly told us we were the new generation and the hope of the nation. Ironically, these ideals born from society are rejected by society itself. Ideals spur you to endure suffering for them, but society calls you toward the tranquil, comfortable life of the bourgeoisie. Ideals encourage you to create value through work, but that very job demands you toil day and night on repetitive, superficial tasks. Ideals wave and smile at you, yet society vehemently denies the worth of it all. These displaced ideals get stuck in the fissure between spirit and reality, stuck in the human heart where they burn persistently, stabbing at the soul as if to tear it apart. Ultimately, these individuals become like this artwork itself, like beetles, unable to turn over or cease their struggle. As they struggle, they scorn both those lying down and those standing up, while simultaneously being mocked by the standing and the lying.
Up, Up, Up
Fang Yi Wu is a high school student pursuing visual arts. Her work primarily explores the relationship and dynamic interplay between young people and the changing society. She explores this relationship through sculpture and painting, and she is continually experimenting this topic with more sincere expression in her future works.
