Feiyi Wen is a visual artist and researcher, currently undergoing her Practice-led PhD at the Slade School of Fine Art (University College of London) on Eastern Asian aesthetics and photographic practice. She received her Master’s degree in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London. She works with different media such as photography, moving image, sound, and installation.
Under the Yuzu Tree
My research examines the superficial similarity and profound difference of the emotion-object relationship to be found between Western and East Asian philosophical traditions. Another aim is to pursue the significant link between the literature and visual art, adopting the comparative literature methodology and combining the analyses together. Research is conducted through an analysis of literary works, the concurrent examination into the representations of these corresponding concepts in visual art practice, and includes case studies of literary work, films, and artistic practice as well as my own photographic work and writing.
I’m particularly looking into how we experience the landscape and how narrative alters memory through visual practice. Through using a gentle approach to evoke subtle resonance, the emotions are embodied in the landscapes. Using comparative literature as a method, I examine the different notions of emotion occurring in different times and spaces. Under the Yuzu Tree is an on-going project, I am working with mixed media, such as our family archive, photographs, paper ephemerals, texts, letters, and video installation.
I am seeking traces of uncertain identity of my own family history. The investigation takes place through the fuzzy memories of family members oral stories. Through investigating family photographs, letter, and other material, I am trying to put the fragmental pieces together into some kind of entity. By mixing up different material, I am testing the blurry distinction between documentation and fiction. I am in particular looking into how the narrative is altered from memory through images and how the ambiguous nature contained within the everyday. Within the liminal space between time, space and history, I am interested in the interplay between autobiography and imagination.
To view more of Feiyi’s work please visit her website.