Julia Chiang considers the body to be central to the allegories, metaphors, and exploration she builds around her work. Her abstract paintings and ceramic objects often use organic forms and repeated patterns to represent introspections ranging from the corporeal to the psychological.
To make yardage for Going Under, Shhh with FWM’s Studio team, Chiang created a rich print of layered forms that collide, overlap, and intertwine. Waves of her signature teardrop patterns sweep over wisps of dotted constellations in blue, green, and pearl. Drawing upon the experiences and feelings of secret havens, dreams, survival, protection, practicality, and joy, Chiang offers a space for visitors to reorient themselves by presenting the work overhead as a long, flowing canopy.
“The feeling of no choice but to make, I think, is something most artists relate to,” says Chiang. “I am thinking about how what we do can have a purpose beyond where it normally lives. In a way, this opportunity to make textiles and prints is a way to imagine how my work might offer more. A private pause within a space, imagining the ability to offer shelter, protection, or…escape.”
