Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

SESS ION 8 : VOI CES OF GENDER Chen Yan Yin Emotion andArt I am very happy to take part in this conference and want to thank both the Queensland Art Gallery for this opportunity, and my friends for all their help. This kind of support is wonderfu l and unforgettable. Thank you . First I would like t o show some slides of my past works s o you can get a general understanding of me. 1 . Discrepancy Between One Idea was exh ibited in the 'Three Person Exhi bition' in October 1 995 at the Exhibition Hall of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. What am I? What is love? What is eternity? These are old themes. A person asks 'What is the Moon'? another person points to the moon and says 'Look. That is the moon ', the person who asked the question then understands. But all she/he saw was the hand of the person who pointed out the moon . What then after all is the moon for the person who asked the question? This is an old story. We live in a vast sea of desire, we endlessly return to this world because we are infatuated with it, and our most sacred hopes more often than not are illusions, we cannot endure constant seduction . As a resu lt of the d iscrepancies which arise in communication; in conversation; i n physical contact; in expressions of eye contact; and in emotional contact, each occasion of contact, each instant of contact, the differences conti nue and develop, we conscientiously try to make them up yet the discrepancies just get larger. In this state it is impossible to overcome the defeats and i nj u ries endured in our inner worlds. Such is life, and to an even greater extent, such is love. This is what I wanted to state in this work. 2. 'Box Series' was exhibited in a solo exh ibition in October 1 994 at the Exh ibition Hall of the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture I nstitute. I 'm showi ng here eight pieces of work from this exhibition . Box 1 and Box 2 , wood , 90cm x 90cm x 90cm. The boxes represent my heart which is full of suffering and torment; the pain and suffering I inflict upon myself and the outside world and that which is reflected onto me from the outside world . Box 3, wood, 90cm x 60cm x 60cm I have no way of explaining why this work is as it is. I originally planned to put a large lid on the top of this rectangular box, but in the process of maki ng the piece there was nowhere to put the spikes, so I put them on the lid . Each time I entered my studio I felt that it had a ki nd of el usive beauty, a pure kind of beauty. Box 4, wood , 70cm x 60cm x 60cm This has an awkward proportion and sense of un ity; a combi nation which carries a sense of trouble or foreboding. Box 5, The Unfertilised Egg, wood a nd brass tubes, 1 SOcm x SOcm x SOcm Why do I raise the subject of the unfertilised ovum? Because it is waiting for impregnation. It is physically and psychologically incomplete, yet has experienced many vicissitudes of life. How can this state of i ncompleteness and unfitness result in a bloom ing? Box 6, Abortion, wood and brass, 1 00cm x 1 00cm x 1 00cm The suffering of i nduced abortion is something that many women find difficult to forget. It is like a deep wou nd which forever leaves its imprint on the m ind and body. It is impossi ble for women to prevent the i njury caused by this kind of upset. 1 06