Ruoxi's Artist Statement

I work with painting, drawing, and printmaking predominately in a perceptional manner. I enjoy responding to my observation as a “process,” as well as creating the illusion of surface texture as an “end.” I am obsessed with structure and space and love exploring a wide variety of applications to linear perspective or perceptual systems. Most my works involve figures in space, which gives rise to narrative situations. Narratives and drama are important ingredients to my works. One of the ways I introduce drama to my work is by adopting a panoramic perspective. For me a panorama is not only a wide-angled view, but also a way to depict a whole that consists of a variety of parts and produce an epic feeling. For instance, a social panorama is a collection of individual situations within the society.

My inventive works tend to focus on the darker side of human conditions, especially violence (physical, mental, sexual, social, political, etc.) paired with a dark sense of humor. I think violence and humor are two of the most fundamental human characteristics. We seem to have the built-in capacity for violence towards others in order for self-preservation. Despite our awareness of all men’s brutality in the past and present, we are still capable of sense of gallows humor and continuing to move on. To me, such a sense of humor is both cruel and graceful, as we laugh at ourselves for being both the villain and the victim. Through my work, I want to present violence to my viewers, and let them decide whether they found it disturbing or laughable.