Wuchao Feng

There are two large light boxes on the wall. The content on both of them is written by unrefined misshapen pearls.

Wuchao Feng (b.1998) is a Chinese artist who is currently studying at the Royal College of Art. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2020. Through the use of natural metaphors, particularly water, she advocates for a new definition of identity as a fluid state in her art practice. She is interested in the natural industries that were once thriving but have now gradually declined due to urbanization in her hometown. She finds solace in the tranquil embodiment of water, a form of oceanic therapy that soothes her soul and helps her recognize the unbreakable bond between herself and nature.

Her works have been exhibited at Paris, Texas, SOKA Art (2023), EXPO Chicago (2022), Artworks Open, Barbican Arts Group Trust (2022), Maritime Asia, Rockbund Art Museum (2022), Art Nova 100 Annual Exhibition, Guardian Art (2021), CRASSH 20th Anniversary Exhibition, University of Cambridge (2021), Cladogram: 2nd KMA International Juried Biennial (2021), Camera USA® 2019: National Photography Exhibition and Award, Florida (2019).

A tweezer and a bowl of cultured freshwater pearls

The unrefined misshapen pearls depict unspeakable traumas through the feminine metaphor of pearls, born of time, nature, and heart. I often find myself grappling with a sort of aphasia when attempting to articulate my trauma, especially those invisible ones attached to my female identity. The weight of these mixed feelings silences my voice, while the language barrier adds an additional layer of complexity as a foreigner. Gradually, I discovered that a pearl has formed out of the silence and endurance in my heart.

I’m from a coastal province called Zhejiang in southern China, where most freshwater pearls come from. After the grafting process, predominantly operated by low-paid female workers, a piece of mantle tissue is implanted into the pearl, forcing it to transform its own body to produce more pearls. These alphabet-shaped pearls are considered imperfections in batches. Seen as flawed and cheap byproducts of pearl cultivation, they have been rearranged and translated into another natural language, beyond the bounds of perfection or imperfection.

Indeed, a pearl language is formed naturally.

Language is produced by the material itself. As the pearls grow imperfectly, language is revealed. The material ‘emits’ language as if it is already embedded in its very cellular structure, where language is explained through the cyphers of the signifier and the signified.

The Pearl is a confessional mirror, reflecting the self and the group, a testimony to both contradiction and reconciliation. The pearl is an abbreviation of the clam’s endurance. Similar to Katie Holten’s description of her stone practice, the pearls also bear witness. All the lines, cracks, holes, marks, dots, wrinkles, and nacre traces that appear on the pearl over and over again, and on different scales, must be trying to tell us something about the life of the clam, the trauma, and the urgency of collective care. Messages percolate from the past, up through cracks and scars on the pearl's skin and heart.

Recognition without Control – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Lightbox, 180x120cm, Price on Request, 2023

Intimacy without Mastery – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Lightbox, 180x120cm, Price on Request, 2023

Exhibition View

Till Your Tears Mixed Up with Mine – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Photography, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta 180x110cm, Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2023

The Wreckage Becomes A Reef – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Photography, Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta 180x110cm, Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2023

Exhibition View – Paris, Texas, SOKA Art, Beijing, China, 2023

Perfect – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Mixed Media, 40x15x5.5cm

Perfect (Object View) – Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2022

Beyond Skin – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Mixed Media, 40x15x5.5cm

Beyond Skin(Object View） – Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2022

Certainty – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Mixed Media, 40x15x5.5cm

Certainty(Object View） – Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2022

Oceanic Heart – Unrefined Misshapen Pearls, Mixed Media, 40x15x5.5cm

Oceanic Heart(Object View） – Edition of 3+1AP, Price on Request, 2022

Exhibition View – Paris, Texas, SOKA Art, Beijing, China, 2023

Otherness

Fluidity

Trauma

Equality

PDF: Wuchao Feng_Pearls of Wisdom_Portfolio

Sculpture, 2022, 1.4x1.7x0.2m, Biodegradable Materials： Oyster Shell, Agar, Honey, Branch

Trapped in a family religious dispute, the artist reflects on the significance and functions of faith and concludes that the ultimate goal is to deal with the tragedy of death, unjustifiable sufferings, and the vindication of dogmas.

Unlike traditional amulets, which lose their power when exposed to water as her family believes, the bio-degradable amulet made of oyster shell reflects the artist’s oceanic identity, a symbol of the ever-renewing of life and death. It demonstrates how the artist gradually defines a fluid certainty in water and how she deals with the fear of death with faith in water.

Wuchao Feng

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Royal College of Art