Fiona Long Art

Character

Originally uploaded by fionalongart.

I’m excited to announce that I will be taking part in a ‘Whisper Residency’ at the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, starting later this month!

During the residency, I will explore how images can be seen differently depending on our comprehension of them. In my artistic practice, I’m interested in how susceptible we are, as humans, to see faces in things. With my degrees in both Fine Art and Psychology, I find the ways in which we cognitively interpret image fascinating. Chinese calligraphy is so beautiful to look at, and yet I have no idea what any of the characters mean. I will spend the residency investigating Chinese characters, particularly those that may look like faces and make highly laboured paintings and drawings from them. With the understanding of their meaning, and years of calligraphy practise, these characters can be drawn in seconds. To make laboured drawings with hundreds of ‘timid’ marks is rather paradoxical. I would love to discover how these drawings would then be interpreted by British and Chinese cultures. An exploration of whether I had somehow altered or mutated the meaning of a character through poor transcription is one of the aims of the project. I also aim to show how image can transcend language with this body of work.

Luckily, my residency has been timed to coincide with Infinite Strokes: Chinese Ink Painting; Mary Tang & Cathy Wu. There will be workshops and demonstrations for visitors to the space and I’ll be able to join in too! I look forward to hopefully collaborating with and learning from Mary and Cathy!

My residency takes place from the 27th August to 11th September with my Open Studio exhibition on Friday 24th September. If you’re able, it would be lovely to see you at the open studio, or you can pop in during my residency to see what I’m up to. Let me know though since I’ll be going on various research trips and would hate to miss your visit! You could also come along to one of the calligraphy workshops:

Mary Tang
Saturday 28 August
For families and children: 10am – 11:45am
For Adults: 1pm – 3:15pm

Cathy Wu
Saturday 4 September
For families and children: 10am – 11:45am
For Adults: 1pm – 3:15pm