ART Habens Art Review ART Habens Art Review - Special Issue #89 | Page 35

Tatawa (Wei Tan)
ART Habens
crave the freedom of spontaneity yet
unable to manage the breadth of
possibilities. I do not deliberately
suggest such interpretations in my
paintings, but I believe the audience
might be able to pick up some of these
contradictions and ironies.
unapologetically. However what I found
is that when someone tries to interpret
my art, they often do it with a fear of
“getting it wrong” or perhaps with a
fear of offending the artist by
misinterpreting the artwork. What I
wish they knew is that it actually
greatly satisfies me when I hear a
“wrong” interpretation of my artwork,
simply because as the artist herself, I
do not have the ability to forget exactly
how and why I made the artwork. An
open interpretation keeps the artwork
alive.
I do not think that any creative output
can be independent from direct
experience. I believe that every
expression is a response to something
that has happened. I see my paintings
as diaries and my painting process as
journaling, hence the “journal titles”.
Mourning the Loss of a Dream I was
made after an argument with a friend
which triggered the feelings of
disappointment and disillusionment.
Abdomen was made when I was
experiencing abdominal pain. Random
Memory Generator was made after a
regression therapy session. So on an
everyday level, my art literally reflects
direct experience. On a greater level, it
is no different – my improvisational
painting style is a direct response to my
feeling of suffocation in the past. To me
it is impossible to separate the
mundane, everyday life from artistic
production. Even if an artist intends to
base an artwork on this separation, the
I never preconceived a central idea for
my work, but in retrospect it would be
the idea of journaling. I like to collect
and archive things – photos, writings,
artwork, music, even clothes. It is an
obsession with preserving the past. My
paintings are an attempt to capture
and record moments in my life. It is
ironic that I value the fluidity of
personal evolution yet unable to
reconcile with the disappearance of old
things. Another central theme is that
my paintings are confessional. In life I
am often overwhelmed by choice and
the consequence of wrong choices. As
an artist I was overwhelmed by the
options of what to create, so much so
that I gave up on choosing and
resorted to confessing. I used honesty
as my limitation – although honesty
itself changes. Again it is ironic that I
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