The Realm of Perception (2009)
As the initial step to understand humans' own selves before encountering the outer world, the series explores Ting's personal state of consciousness and unconsciousness and the relationship between the inner and outer world in search of her true cultural identity.
On the base layer, Ting used an ink transfer technique to place the text of personal confessions directly on the canvas, then overlapped the text with drawings of fluorescent colours through multiple peeling to depict key moments in her friends and family's lives.
The series of paired paintings focus on the continuity and differentiation of expressing one's own self and re-connecting with the outer world in each attempt. From Ting's perspective, they also featured the tension between her typical Western culture to confess personal emotions and Chinese values to hide emotions beneath layers of imageries and texts at times of emotional struggles. The dichotomy between the suppressed and the expressed is conveyed so that Ting can let go of the boundaries, reveal the hidden items for reconnection and again follow her own impulse to conceal it.
Everyone has hidden layers of secrets and imageries.
#Fluorescents
#Unconsciousness
#SelfDialogue
Born in Belgium, and grew up in Hong Kong, Mediha Ting is inspired by the representation of consciousness of repressed memories and the passing of time through the use of fluorescent colors. She graduated from University of the Arts London (former Byam Shaw School of Arts) in 2000. She later earned a Master's Degree in Art Policy and Management at Birkbeck College in London. After 20 years of living and working in the UK, she moved back to Hong Kong in 2012.
Mediha Ting