We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mei Gong. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mei below.
Hi Mei, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.
I have recently completed a work, and I regard the installation and exhibition of this work as a meaningful ceremony. This work is called Blooming, and its content is about me combing my past growing up experience into my own genealogy then I said goodbye to those experiences and began to reinvent myself.
Therefore, the creation materials and techniques of this work were different from those in the past. During the creation process, I could also feel that I was in a new mood and state to gradually shape this work into a way beyond my expectations. It was an intriguing process.
Mei, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
A fortune-teller told me I was an ancient poet in my past life, but I don’t remember anything about my past life. I guess we all only live once, so I have to live fervent and vigorous. Design, art, multi-instrument proficiency, volunteer club president, amateur karate athlete… In the past 26 years, various careers and hobbies have been crowded into my life. I compare myself to a treasure chest that I can always find treasures and surprises in the process of exploring myself.
I have had six years of study and practice in design. During that period, as a deep observer of the society, I believed that good design and art should penetrate into people’s lives and make people in a good artistic atmosphere, perception and participation. I have made 3D picture books for blind children, I went to South Africa to participate in the project of sustainable urban water use, I did a project on the recycling industry chain of electronic products in Boston, and I also cooperated with the Museum of Science in Boston to design an AR climate changing game for children… Therefore, I have a lot of social practice experience and solid design ability, such as design-thinking, hand-drawing, storytelling, video production, research ability and so on. Until one day I realized why don’t I use these abilities to create something interesting? I have the ability to sketch and storyboard so I also have the ability to make illustrations and sculptures. I can play the piano, ukulele and drums, so why can’t I go and make some music and interesting sounds? There are so many beautiful things in the world waiting for me to explore and create, why should I always look for pain points from a designer’s perspective? Then I immediately applied for a Master of Fine Arts degree and tried to be an artist during this period.
I tried to awaken my original, most authentic self and find the emotion and vitality of being an artist. So I looked back at my past growing up and figured out how I got to where I am now. Social environment, school and family discipline and domestication can have a big impact on us, and once I figured out that this is what I need to get rid of, I began to reinvent myself. So my recent creation Blooming is a meaningful ritual for me to say goodbye to some of the things I used to have.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Let me go on to talk about the meaningful project, the ritual of beginning to reinvent myself. In order to escape the influence of the discipline and domestication of my environment, school and family, I began to reinvent myself. I know my sensitivity, so I want to stay in a clean environment, so I can only create new things. The real hope is in the wide world, with time, talent, and energy. I must go straight to pure and beautiful art, and not waste my energy on the road.
The installation, called Blooming, is placed in a small space surrounded by a ring of duckling-patterned bathroom curtains. Yes, this small space looks like a bathroom from the outside. Because the bathroom is a very private space, only we face the most naked self to have a conversation. The blue drops hanging from the ceiling, the rain on a hot, humid summer day, or the drops sliding off my skin in the shower are no different from tears. Hidden in the corner is a small projection, different in size from the regular viewing angle, which requires looking down. This projected video records some images that I often map out in my mind with what I often say to myself subconsciously. The background music is also a piano music written by myself.
Wings and feathers are also the symbols I used this time. There is a saying that if you see a white feather, it means your guardian angel is passing by. I often see feathers on the road, I think my guardian angel must have secretly helped me a lot! As I grew up, I gradually developed full wings. But on the other hand, growth is also the accumulation of countless small and desperate. When I can fight my way out of this vortex, I’m not the same person anymore.
As for the material, the main material this time is chocolate. For example, raindrops and thorns in clouds are made of chocolate. Why chocolate? Because it’s a malleable material that can be toned, and its melting point is very close to the human body temperature, which I find very coincidental. It’s hard, but it’s also very sweet, and the contrast is very interesting. After I made these sculptures out of chocolate, no one came forward to find out that they were made out of chocolate, which is really exciting to me.
And about the hands, I used my own hands to do 1:1 mold. This is the “Here, let me show you something” sign. Holding a butterfly in my hands means something precious. I hold in my hands the things that matter most to me, the people that I cherish, the good memories, and the vitality that I want to protect the most.
Please give me the courage to face this noisy world. But don’t forget, we are the source of our power. A butterfly flew out of my eyes as I stared at myself. It’s made of pain, poetry, clarity, freedom, and traces of the warm river.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think they will, because so do I and my artist friends (lol). It’s common for people to see something interesting and want to know about it. However, artistic creation is a perceptual thing, and each person’s interpretation and feeling are unique. Perhaps this is the charm of art.
As creators, if we want to let the audience know about the work, we will put an exhibition label next to the work that contains a brief description of the work and information about the author. If it is more detailed, the audience can also see the creation background of the work and the contact information of the author so that the audience can have a deeper understanding. In some cases, the artwork is an expression of the artist’s emotions, and that can be very personal, and the audience can be confused if they don’t know the narrative line. I remember when I first started making art, my teacher said that every work is a seed. The soil in which this seed grows is the life experience of the creator. The germination of this seed, the growth of the trunk, branches, leaves and fruits must be related to this soil, because they are nourished by this soil. In other words, when the audience and the creator have a similar experience, this is the most understandable, that is resonance. In those moments when it doesn’t resonate, it’s also good for the audience to listen to the creator’s story.
One more thing, I think everyone is an artist of life, everyone has the right to create. I hope everyone can be empowered by aesthetic education to find and observe life and try to express their feelings of life with their own creative media. You must love life first, and life will love you.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: meowmeow_hygge
