Xue Wang
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“I like to challenge, to be controversial and make people think a bit – the fact that I use childhood looks, with big eyes and soft lips disturbs some people.”
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but happy childhood in which her imagination became her constant companion. “I was an only child in a household where both my parents were out working, so I retreated like lots of children into an imaginary world, playing with my dolls, dressing them up and building little stage sets and that has influenced my work enormously.” The eerie sense of humour combined with an obsession with dolls, toys and fairy tales creates a captivating and unsettling mood which Xue likes to take to sometimes shocking extremes. “Superficially they may appear ‘cute’ but my intention is to unsettle, albeit it subtly – just as the creeping wasp on the fairy cake does,” she explains. The overly large eyed temptresses may appear vacuous but are by turns amusing, odd, and just a little threatening. “I like to challenge, to be controversial and make people think a
bit – the fact that I use childhood looks, with big eyes and soft lips disturbs some people,” laughs Xue, whose condom bubble-blowing Marilyn Monroe figure in ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ has caused some collectors eyebrows to be raised. The Imaginarium of Xue Wang collection is inspired by silver screen Hollywood iconography, as well as Xue’s passion for dark Ealing horror films. She likes to employ what she calls Hitchcockian techniques in her paintings, using shadow and enclosed space to great effect. “People often ask me why I always feature blondes in my paintings – but like Hitchcock, I can see the reflection and nuances in blonde hair that you would not get on a brunette – plus blood shows up on blonde better!” Some of the images use a monochrome palette to impart a ‘period feel’ to the theme and the cinematic elements are tinged with
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8 FIN e ARTC o LL e CT o R AUTUMN2014
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