No. 0316 ( Minh Hạnh dịch)

Young artist tries to put a finger on the subjective nature of reality

by Dan Tranberg, Special to The Plain Dealer,

Cleveland, Ohio (USA) -- Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
These questions are central to the very origins of modern art. But the interwoven subjects of personal, ethnic and spiritual identity also have be come increasingly more visible in works of even younger artists.
For New York-based artist Katarina Wong, the seventh participant in Spaces Gallery's World Artist Program, such questions are inevitably linked to a larger philosophical question: What is the nature of reality?
"I was thinking about the Buddhist idea that there is no such thing as objective reality," says Wong, who spent three months working in Cleveland this summer. "And then I was thinking, How is this true?' "
That question led Wong to investigate the nature of identity and to one idea in particular. "Identity is not housed in my physical body, it is housed in other people's memories, and those people live all over the world."
During her residency in Cleveland, Wong used this notion of identity as the basis for a project in which she made molds of people's fingerprints and then used the molds to make hundreds of wax castings. She mounted the wax forms (which, from a distance, look like minnows or slugs) to the walls of the gallery in a configuration that resembles a map of commercial airline flight patterns.
Titled "Still Center," the piece is immediately striking for its beauty. The wax castings are tinted with graphite and range in tone from pure black to translucent, yellowish white. Combined with their gray shadows, they form a radiant image that seems to flicker with light.
It is only upon close investigation that the castings look like fingerprints, an idea Wong said came from her desire to "capture something about peoples' essence."
Once this is realized, the piece immediately raises the issue of personal identity and the ironic reality that in many ways, we are very similar to one another.
Such paradoxes are intrinsic to Buddhism, Wong's primary field of study. She holds a master of theology in Buddhist studies from Harvard Divinity School as well as a master of fine arts in sculpture from the University of Maryland.
Combining her interests in art and Buddhism, Wong will use the work she did in Cleveland as part of an international event called "The Missing Peace: The Dalai Lama Portrait Project," in which 50 artists will exhibit works in a series of exhibitions around the world.
The exhibition tour will open in Los Angeles in 2006 and will travel to Japan and throughout Europe before closing in New York City in 2008.
Wong said that the project's organizers asked for one of her fingerprint pieces, which she has been developing for the past four or five years.
Her experience at Spaces is perhaps the most clearly productive example to date of the World Artist Program at work. In addition to having a show at Spaces and meeting with members of the local art and Buddhist communities, she produced work that will travel the world.
On Friday, Oct. 15, she also will participate in a panel discussion at Spaces (along with local artists Royden Watson and Kristin Baumlier and visiting Hungarian artist Katarina Sevic) on the topic of artists making the transition from art school to the world at large.
While Wong's Cleveland project is successful in obvious ways, it also contains subtle reminders of a major issue brewing among younger artists the question of identity and what it means.
As technology continues to make the world seem smaller and smaller, artists such as Wong are considering the reality that identity is not only what distinguishes us as individuals; it's also what makes us connected.
Tranberg is an artist and writer living in Cleveland.