Skip to main content
Story

We are undergoing a grand separation

a painting of a figure in a garden
  • Written byTong Wu
  • Published date 02 March 2023
a painting of a figure in a garden
Tong Wu, 2023
I imagine...that now you are feeling a bit like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole？...You have the look of the man who accepts what he sees，because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically，this is not far from the truth......Let me tell you why you are here. You are here because you know something. What you know，you cannot explain. But you feel it. You felt it in your entire life. That there is something wrong with the world..... Like every else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.

— Morpheus, The Matrix

My paintings are concerned with the artificiality and performativity of postmodernity, in late capitalism, where people are surrounded by the spectacles constructed by capital. These spectacles appropriated each other and produced countless more spectacles.

As millennials, we have grown up in a post-modern world where we are used to separation. The spectacle used to separate us from the real world, but now, perhaps, life itself has become a spectacle.

As post-modern young people, we are surrounded by media on a daily basis and social platforms dominate us. We upload beautiful photos and want our audience to see the person we want to be seen by others.

a painting of a woman
Tong Wu, 2023

In ancient Greek mythology, there was a narcissistic teenager named Narcissus, a handsome and proud young man who becomes enamored with his own reflection in a pool of water. He becomes so obsessed that he cannot bear to leave it and eventually dies, with only a narcissus flower growing in his place. The story has come to represent self-love and vanity. Today we are all becoming narcissists because of the media. Like the girls in my paintings, they are dressed in cool costumes but their eyes are confused as if they are resisting something. The angel on the grass is on his knees, looking distressed.

a painting of people in a lake
Tong Wu, 2023

Heaven and disaster, order and chaos, the reason of Apollo and the drunkenness of the god of wine, all these happen to us. My paintings are the truest portrayal of us.

Perhaps we should be aware of life and not let the spectacle, the capital, eat away at us too much. We should be revolutionary, starting with our daily lives. Although we are suffering from this grand separation, we can at least resist. Painting is my form of resistance.

a painting of a woman riding a carousel holding a gun
Tong Wu, 2023

Related Links

Post-Grad Stories

Download the PDF Guide to writing articles for Post-Grad Stories

Want to write an article? Get in touch with the Post-Grad Community team PGCommunity@arts.ac.uk

UAL Post-Grad Community

Established in 2013, Post-Grad Community is an inclusive platform for all UAL postgraduate students to share work, find opportunities and connect with other creatives within UAL and beyond. Find out more