FLUX 2021 - Victoria Shi

Instagram: _victoriashi and _victoriashiart

Victoria Shi is a Chinese Canadian student at the University of Waterloo. Born and raised in Toronto, she frequently centres her art around the female form, focusing on cultural identity and the social perception of femininity and womanhood. Her paintings often take on elements of sculpture—for example, incorporating layers of resin to achieve a variety of textures and the appearance of depth. She now lives in Waterloo where she studies Knowledge Integration and Fine Arts.

Artist Statement

Fruit is something that has long been considered a strong representation for the female body. In addition to some vague anatomical similarities suggesting sex and genitalia, the comparisons between fruit and femininity extend far beyond physicality. Socially upheld beliefs connote the two with specific descriptors – sweet, fertile, and consumable, for example. Divine uses this association as a means to subvert the male gaze and the harmful stereotyped image of the female body and femininity. The fetishized Asian female form consuming the fruit suggests freeing the ‘self’ and the conquering of external constraints. 

Rather than a sensuous visual experience, Divine rejects expectations and is instead far more visceral, ravenous, and powerful. The juice and flesh of the berries are layered with resin to incorporate 3-dimensionality into the piece while also highlighting the abject. The work is also shown mounted on a wall covered in blackberry wallpaper, sardonically referencing the idea of the stereotyped ‘woman’ by emphasizing the imagery of fruit, and inserting home décor elements and pattern in a formal gallery space. This is also a dismantling of the ‘white cube’ in art, the modernist aesthetic devoid of alternate ways of knowing and intersectionality.

Interview

How have your lived experiences informed your artistic practice?

I grew up in Toronto between two cultures, as the daughter of Chinese immigrants. I remember being torn between conflicting messages about body image and mental health. Menstruation, in particular, is something that I struggled with quite a bit, especially in adolescence. Menstruation seemed full of paradoxes. At 11 years old, I was being told that I was a child, yet I had suddenly become a woman at the same time. My school teachers told me it was natural and nothing to be ashamed of, but I was terrified my classmates could tell when I was on my period. My friends used tampons and I also wanted to, but I was told by family that they were only for women “with children”, and that a tampon would rob me of my virtue and innocence. 
At age 14, a Youtube by an Asian American woman speaking about her experience growing up with the same kind of conflict inspired me to purchase a box of tampons for the first time. Luckily, I had been menstruating, because hearing about her experiences validated mine so intensely that I ran upstairs and immediately ‘Captain Morgan-ed’ over the toilet like the pamphlet instructed and inserted. I had never felt more powerful. I immediately told my mother that I had used a tampon, and her worry and fear were apparent, but soon replaced by unlearning and understanding. The feeling of learning together is one that I hope to replicate through my artistic practice, removing stigma and critiquing the taboo surrounding women’s health and the perception of women, particularly in more conservative East Asian cultures.

Who are your greatest influences? What effect do they have on your thesis work?

Two artists who come to mind are Leng Jun and Mary Pratt. Both artists are extremely realistic painters with exceptional technique, but I find myself appreciating them for different reasons. The way Pratt utilizes light in her paintings to make mundane foods seem so transcendent and enticing, and I love Leng Jun’s hyper realistic portraits of women so much because he makes the conscious decision to paint the subject’s true likeness, including acne and scars. They also both bear similarities in subject matter with my thesis work, so I look to them often.

What is your usual artmaking process like? What are your preferred mediums?

My process begins with lots of sketches and reference photos. Sometimes, I like to write about ideas I have, leading to lots of incoherent notes peppered across various pages. After finding something that I am excited about, I take lots of reference photos to begin working from. From the photos, I’ll produce more sketches in different compositions, usually changing and refining the initial concept many times before settling on something more final. Then I move to painting. I draw a basic sketch before starting to paint. After that, I just keep painting until I’m satisfied or sufficiently exhausted. I mainly use acrylics for the fast drying time and versatility, especially its compatibility with epoxy resins, but I decided on oil paints for my thesis work for a change of pace.