The Footmark Under The Moonlight
Participating Artists:
The Footmark Under The Moonlight
Dates: 2024.10.27 -12.23
The exhibition theme is drawn from the classic novel The Moon and Sixpence by British novelist William Somerset Maugham. Through the protagonist Charles Strickland, Maugham portrays an artist who abandons his worldly life in pursuit of his inner dreams. Strickland struggles between reality and fantasy—his feet grounded in the world of sixpence, yet his gaze fixed on the unattainable moon. This metaphor vividly captures the conflict and ambivalence of pursuing dreams while bound to reality. “Footprints Under the Moonlight” symbolises this very journey—the walk between ideals and the everyday—much like Chen Mutian’s work, which embodies the interweaving of dreams and reality.
Chen Mutian’s practice is deeply influenced by the history and culture of her hometown Changsha, Hunan, particularly the ancient silk manuscripts unearthed from the Mawangdui tombs. These ancient symbols, through her personal adaptation, become mysterious emblems within her work, lending it a distinctive cultural and historical depth. She inscribes these historical signs into the context of contemporary art, creating a visual narrative that is both historically resonant and distinctly modern—a unique expression of dialogue between past and present.
In her creative process, Chen also incorporates discarded everyday materials such as old clothing, telephone wires, buttons, and zippers—often sourced from her mother or friends. Her practice employs a language of mending, layering, and stitching, weaving fragments of life through these peculiar discarded objects. By intertwining and fusing limited materials with their embedded emotions, she generates infinite connections. Through fabric, she constructs metaphors for lived experience—channeling social anxieties that emerge yet remain wrapped within her puppet-like figures, alongside a sense of childlike wonder that is both fantastical and restrained. In doing so, she creates a hidden utopia, a whimsical psychic landscape where one can leave behind the worries of the world.
