SelfPortrait06_Diptych
Media
Archival inkjet on canvas
Size
26" x 34" (each half; shown side-by-side total: 26" x 68")
Artist
Chi-wah Man
Organization/Affilitaion
None
Location
Hong Kong, China
About

As a result of the ever-expanding information technologies, “pluralism” becomes a common phenomenon in our lives. For me, reality is many individual components rather than one interconnected thing. I intentionally put fragmented pieces of motifs, memories, different color schemes, some hints of related inner structure, together to make a diptych that can be viewed separately or as a whole to express my attitude toward the ever-transforming surroundings and cultures.

For me, “Art” is a way of promoting healing, growth, and wholeness of individuals. All my works are my self portraits: they reflect the inner part of me and give me access to examine my feelings, my thoughts, my experience, my conditions- my life/ I strive to overcome fears and embrace discoveries and changes. The purpose of this exploration is to make the unconscious conscious and eventually make a more integrated self.

With technological invention comes an expanding and altering of consciousness. This phenomenon leads to the making of a new, postmodern self- one with many peronae but no unifying center. It sounds like a contradiction, yet to some degree this is true. We are all contradictions, divided against ourselves. But such temptations for distraction and fragmentation will eventually seduce us to look more closely at ourselves and invite us to discover within ourselves a higher power of wholeness and integrity.

Human beings are an exploring species. Searching for ways to understand the relationship between the world and themselves, and to make a more integrated self, seems to be built into the genetic codes of people. That is my goal in making art.

Technical Notes

Each era generates its own language to synthesize the spirit of the time, and computer technologies change the way we process the world, creating new space for exploration and transformation of consciousness. I search for new ways of generating art works through micro-electronics, to establish new parameters for seeing and comprehending reality. That’s why I use digital technology to investigate SelfPortarits.