The subject matter of this artwork is a portrait of a Chinese Opera Actress. The meaning behind this painting is the pain and suffer that people will not notice. There is a saying in Mandarin, “台上一分钟，台下十年功”, which means ten years of practising offstage just for a minute on stage. Chinese opera actor/actress spend years training and practising to give their best on that few minutes stage. Similar to the context of Chinese opera, this artwork took me 5 days to put on every single screw, 12 hours of painting job. Unfortunately, the audience will only look at this artwork for a few moments.

I refer to the art movement called “Screw Art” by Andrew Myers. I got inspired by this artist because I came across a video of a blind man putting his hands all over a three-dimensional portrait of his face constructed with thousands of screws. His blank expression suddenly transformed into a warm smile. He could feel what others could only see. It suddenly comes to my mind that everyone will be able to experience the beauty of art through this method, which is why this artwork was created.

Acrylic on Screws
73.9 x 38 cm