Gwen Yen Chiu

The darkness that flows from the world’s body, gloomy spot, Pre-dogs our footsteps, and follows us, diaphanous bodies Watching the nouns circle, and watching the verbs circle, till one of them enters the left ear and becomes a shadow Itself, sweet word in the unwaxed ear. This is a short history of the shadow, one part of us that’s real. This is the way the world looks In late November, no leaves on the trees, no ledge to foil the lightfall. - Excerpt from “A Short History of the Shadow”, Charles Wright My work is an exploration of mimicking and critiquing human emotion, gesture, and interrelations.

My interest in these ideas developed from my extensive studies on Otto Lilienthal and Leonardo DaVinci’s flying machines, which were beautiful artworks as well as highly engineered machinery -- some of which were successful, and some not. Nevertheless, to me, these machines were the representation of innate human desire, which were dreams of human flight. The beauty and complexity that I found in these objects still drives my body of work today. Through creating art, I strive to capture and immortalize the ephemeral experience of multi-faceted perceptions that happen within and outside of the body.