Memory in The Wet
2022.11
This project is Hu Qianying’s fourth one. By this stage, she had become brave enough to directly depict the very trauma she had refused to confront in her previous project. In this project, I set a new requirement for her: to create more spontaneously and intuitively, without overthinking. At the same time, I could see in her use of color and composition a growing number of sharper, bolder experiments—signaling that she was moving away from a longing for gentleness and beginning to embrace conflict. Unconsciously, she started using higher-contrast colors, more straight lines, and more acute angles.
In this project, she also attempted to express emotions through dynamic actions—for example, by hiding colorful paintings inside a white shirt, which would then be revealed through the fabric when soaked with water. Most of her creation relied heavily on intuition and was completed within a very short time. I consider this a highly successful exploration of her inner struggles. In guiding her, I deliberately did not give her much time to deliberate. My instruction was simple: first, follow her instinct and paint whatever she felt like painting recently, without thinking about the subject matter. Then, find a way to place these works into a space, and use materials to interact with her paintings. She chose a narrow bathroom and decided to engage with water.
The project was eventually documented through an experimental video that captured various moments in that confined bathroom space: paintings emerging as soap was used, a turning clock, the rinsed shirt, and images projected onto the sink, among others. Interestingly, it was only after the project was completed—when she looked back on it some time later—that Hu Qianying realised she had been depicting her own trauma, and that she had become courageous in facing it.
