一字千景: a thousand scenes by artist Wen Wen Lu, is a commissioned piece that came out of this year’s Artist Brigade. For more information about the Artist Brigade visit: Artist Brigade
This project was created on and inspired by the unceded and ancestral lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (Halkomelem) Nations.
Artist Statement
Going back to the Greenhouse event in 2021 in the talk by Sherry Yano, she shared that change happens when connections are made, emotions are felt, and after the grief, there needs to be joy. I want to create a work that can express that full process. To not only stop at the awe and wonder of the land but going further and uniting the heart and the land. Though I cannot offer a solution to the climate crisis that is happening, I hope that the work can create a space to process the emotions surrounding it and bring a sense of hope and joy that can lead to the needed change.
一字千景: a thousand scenes in one word, is a community-engaged project that aims to connect local Chinese Immigrant community with values of sustainability and environmental impact through Chinese calligraphy, drawing, and animation. Taking inspiration from a well known Chinese proverb, 一字千金 which means one word is more valuable than a thousand pieces of gold, a slight Chinese pun is added to shift that worth onto the land. Through a series of family friendly workshops, the participants found and built meaning through familiar root word symbols and their personal experiences of the environment using simple rice paper rolls and ink. These words and images were then composed into an animation short and screened at a community celebration with participants, their families and friends, and food.
Artist Bio
Wen Wen Lu 陆文雯 (she/her/hers) is a multimedia artist interested in installation, sculpture, and painting; with dabblings in film, animation, book art, print, digital, and community-engaged projects. She thinks of her practice as a conceptual dance where each movement requires its own set of research and material choice. Wen Wen often gravitates towards exploring the hidden, the small, and the forgotten. Or in the metaphor of dance, she finds the possibility between one movement to another more intriguing than the arrival of a finale. Cherry is living and learning on the unceded homelands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (Halkomelem) and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) speaking peoples. http://www.wenwenart.com