ART TAINAN 2022

Spring to Love Series

The Spring to Love series, composed of copper wire sculptures, imagines love in different stages. It also questions the notions of fate and free will within the collective consciousness. Does love have a predetermined fate, or is it a choice of free will? Facing the changes and uncertainties brought about by life and the COVID-19 pandemic, artist Julia Hung spent more time with herself, experimenting with different media to rethink the originality of art and the free will of being human.

Through visualizing my life experiences, I created a new series of copper wire woven sculptures. The free and unrestrained wires, woven together, form a subtly interwoven network of sculptures. Similar to genes, environment, and subconsciousness, we are shaped and restricted amidst the interplay of constraints and freedom. Comparing copper wire to time, pulling it out from the axis, repeatedly outlining loops, breaks the rules of points, lines, surfaces, and bodies, gradually revealing a network-like, interconnected, and permeable time in space, exhibiting a translucent simultaneity.

The woven sculptures concretize non-linear time and the duality of freedom and restrictions in free will, further exploring the existence of free will. Julia learned the crochet technique from her grandmother during her childhood. Her grandmother is originally from Dadaocheng's Dihua Street and married her grandfather, who lived opposite her. During a period of business setbacks for her grandfather, her grandmother supported the family by crocheting lace, helping the economic situation through difficult times. The artist is influenced by her grandmother. She believes female is like flowing water, seemingly soft, its yet resilient nature silently shaping the world. Hence, her artworks often present the dual characteristics, using materials perceived as cold and rigid, like metal, to create warm and organic forms through weaving. The series also revolves around the theme of love, questioning its autonomy.