Shuling Guo: Painting Transformation, Motherhood, and Migration.
Painter Shuling Guo creates work that moves fluidly between personal transformation and universal themes. From the mysticism of her Chaoshan upbringing to her nomadic life aboard a sailing vessel, Guo’s practice is rooted in cycles of nature, birth, and renewal. In this conversation, she reflects on how motherhood, migration, and feminist thought have shaped her approach to painting, and shares a glimpse into the large-scale works she is preparing for her upcoming solo exhibition at Hollis Taggart Gallery in New York.
Reflecting on motherhood and body transformation, you spoke of themes like splitting, stitching, and renewal. How have these experiences changed your artistic vision and the forms you explore?
I was recently pregnant and had a natural birth, and although it is one of the most common experiences in human history, I was astonished by its visceral power.
I felt like an observer as the ancient force of nature took over my body and spirit, in the cycle of creation. It pushed me to my limits and changed me physically and spiritually.
This experience has led me to explore forms that speak to birth, transformation, death, femininity, and spirituality.
Your life aboard the Sailing Vessel Selkie is both poetic and nomadic. How does the act of sailing, being suspended between land and sea, affect how you conceive and create art?
I felt very connected to nature living aboard. You can’t help but be very aware of the sky, the sea, the weather, and feel subordinate to nature’s power.
Color and gradient have always been part of my work, and it was an environment where I had a heightened awareness of the endless palettes and forms of nature.
Many moments of stillness and tranquility found their way into my work at that time, and perhaps continue to have their effect.
As a Chinese-born artist living in the US, how do your origins and your current environment intertwine in your studio work and artistic identity ?
Changing the environment I lived in helped form my identity as a person and as an artist. I grew up in a very traditional, insular, and mystical culture. I left home at 16 to go to Guangzhou, and then on to Beijing for Art college at 20. In the last several years, I’ve been living in the US.
Every move has changed my perspective, encouraged me to question my assumptions, and recognize difference and commonality. It has helped me see that we’re all the same, and yet all different in interesting and beautiful ways. I feel like I can communicate and express myself more broadly, and that while I was formed by my upbringing, I am not defined by it. Growing up in a patriarchal society, I experienced anxiety and depression, questioning my worth.
But going from a village to Guangzhou, Beijing, New York, and then Philly, the outside environment pushed me to look back and rethink my cultural backgroud, more importantly, along the way, women writers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, Annie Ernaux, and Chizuko Ueno awakened my feminist consciousness, and painting has become my way to express this awakening and connect with other women.
From Chaoshan temple murals to Emily Dickinson’s herbarium, your influences are beautifully diverse. How do you weave together these spiritual, botanical, and cultural threads in your practice?
The Chaoshan temples and mysticism of that culture deeply affected my young mind and imagination. They were the starting point for my understanding of the power of art.
To this day, all of my work contains some of the spirit of that formative perspective. I continually work to develop my language of color and form, and try to connect the themes I am exploring by letting them flow through the lens through which I see the world.
Looking forward, are there specific materials, environments, or themes you’re eager to explore in your next chapters, whether on land or sea?
I’m continuing to explore themes of the female experience. As much as I loved the beauty and mysteriousness in my childhood culture, there was also misogyny and limited opportunities for feminine expression.
My physical and cultural distance from my origins, and my recent experience of motherhood, are driving me to focus on this area. I’ve recently been using linen mounted on board with oil painting and oil pencil. I’m planning to work on a larger scale and show this at my solo show at Hollis Taggart Gallery in New York next year.
