In 2014, when I first met Io Weng Si, she has just graduated from Taiwan and has returned to Macao. She was one of the respondents whom I have invited to participate in my artwork. During our conversation, I learnt that she had not yet found a suitable work in which she could play her role as an artist and start a career. Indeed, the art world in Macao is not open enough, and artists have yet to take up a pivotal position in the society. Many graduates who are related to art are eager to find a job after graduation. If you are lucky, you can find a job that corresponds to your interests. Otherwise, you can only settle for what you can find now while exploring for something better. A lot of young people who are passionate about art, who are not in the material pursuit and family pressure under the capitalist society, gradually have to put their own priorities behind. Over time, they can no longer practice their artistic creations. Io Weng Si also suffered from this kind of situation and was confused. She tried to fight against the larger environment and has gone to Germany to pursue her dreams. Her courage to go for her dreams and her persistence on the artistic path is the driving force behind her current exhibition.
Life is filled with colors. At different stages in our life, we have different preferences for colors. It is especially appropriate to use infinite colors to describe the complexity and ever-changing emotions of life. According to Io Weng Si's description, the "blue" color represents her feelings of depression and dimness in the face of adversity. The “blue” color is not an expression confined on the surface level, but it also describes the state when the emotion goes to the dark abyss, after reflection and remorse, there is a faint light at the bottom, and the deep "blue" is slowly illuminated by a gleam, which is the color of warmth, forgiveness and deep reflection.
Therefore, Io Weng Si has borrowed the poem “Recipe for Making the Color Blue” of the Portuguese poet Nuno Júdice as a blueprint. Looking for the concept of "blue" formula, she uses natural materials such as rice pulp and rice paper, taking the land of Macao as the outline, reorganizing it, creating and sketching these semi-abstract mood-oriented maps with emotions. In this process of creation, she said, that water, temperature and sunshine are especially important, as if the earth has grown rice to nourish the people. The pulp is made of rice, its color is white, with a bit of turbidity, but is still not in a pure white state. It is a stage in her pursuit of spiritual purification. And rice paper is like the human heart and the body's cell membrane, although fragile and transparent, it protects the core of life (nuclei). While reinterpreting these blueprints of mind, she is also in a process of re-considering the illusory ideas and thoughts, thus bringing out the light of wisdom.
Io Weng Si's work is deeply poetic, exploring the quasi-pure white footprints, with a white-blue vision, looking for the lost peace and hope. In abstraction she releases her concepts, thoughts and emotions.
Life is composed of darkness and light. Buddhism believes that all human problems come from ignorance; in Chinese it is translated literally as “Without Light”(無明). The "lightness" represents understanding, and the state of dullness brings confusion, trouble and gloominess, thus creating afflictions, the Buddha said. In reality, letting go of the shackles of life, finding the inner wisdom inherent in each of us, and ignite the lamp of awareness in our heart, will help us to escape from the ignorant illusory concepts. It helps us to know, to face and to deal with the true Self. It is a bright awakening led by the inner wisdom of understanding.
Catherine CHEONG
Curator