• Tales of Happy Communion: New Work by Su-en Wong – Jill Conner

    Date posted: June 14, 2006 Author: jolanta

    Tales of Happy Communion: New Work by Su-en Wong

    Jill Conner
     
    Best known for combining self-portraiture and multiplicity within erotic contexts, Su-en Wong will close out the year of 2003 with two solo shows. A third exhibition of her art is currently scheduled at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas, for 2004. In contrast to her earlier drawings, which depicted countless poses of the Asian female compliant within the framework of Western culture, Wong’s new selection of drawings shamelessly represent the female nude happily communing with elements of tropical nature.  

    Fairy Tale Blue, 2003

    Fairy Tale Blue, 2003
    Self-portrayal can serve as a measure of reality’s stress upon the individual. Wong, however, counters this type of straight-forward philosophical inquiry by pursuing fictitious representations that are set in a realist style. Intended to reflect a visual utopia, these new images, such as "Return to Paradise" (2003), veer slightly away from the typical metaphorical scenes in traditionally oppressive fairy tales. Wong, instead, pencils out her own fiction, asserting the desire of many women to be sexually free.

    Each figure, couched in a dense tropical setting, represents different perspectives on the artist’s self. Neither shy nor afraid, every face holds an empty stare at the viewer and remains unwilling to back away from the luxuries seen in the captured moment. Wong’s

    profound manipulation of realism into desire suggests something tangible yet impossible.

    The artist’s creative use of visual idealism deliberately transcends political difference. By juxtaposing several likenesses of deep, feminine longing that are unattainable in daily life, the artist immediately highlights the gross conflicts inherent within our reality. Cloaking each canvas in a single pastel shade, Wong utilizes color to establish the theme of each piece. The combination of a vast empty picture plane with diminutive

    figures lends each work a sensual, panoramic quality. Su-en Wong’s new

    erotic explorations suggest another set of semiotics for both the self and for

    female sexuality.

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