Lyna Hwang

This series explores ways of visually displaying the complexity of feeling nostalgia, how it simultaneously can be happy yet sad. The combination of these opposite emotions into one experience has always interested me. 

I believe nostalgia isn’t exclusive to any specific age, for one I often reminisce about earlier school days, and time with past loved ones. Taking an intangible concept that is part of the human experience and developing it into a more comprehensive form. Focusing on two characters, one representing a current self, navigating the bittersweetness of nostalgia, and a reminiscent past self, lingering like a memory. To distinguish the two, one is headless with a replacement of Forget Me Not flowers, a recurring motif both in image and color. This led me to look into other symbolic elements to help better communicate the feeling of nostalgia, like old sayings or paper crafts made in youth. Mixed media also proved to be effective in translating this sophisticated yet childlike spin, by juxtaposing traditional painting/drawing techniques with childlike cut paper crafts and googly eyes. This way I can portray a feeling so complex in a new unique light.