The Mill is excited to present Life Maps, an exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Jingwei Bu. This series of drawings have been created through performative action, using stylized gestures as a record of movement. Jingwei’s process of intuitive action uses techniques of focus and meditation to translate emotion and memory onto the paper.
Photos: Morgan Sette
Image: Jingwei Bu in front of works from Life Maps series (photo: Morgan Sette).
Each mark has its character to me, together they are telling complex stories. This exhibition shows the old Life Maps from the previous years and the recent ones since my mother’s passing two years ago. The making of new life maps has helped me get through the grieving and to gradually heal.
⏤ Jingwei Bu
Artist statement
My Life Maps drawings are a performative movement of the hands. The marks, numbers and lines carry the intuitive motion performed on the paper. The endurance of the movement uses the paper as a stage and as a boundary for action. The results of the performances are either purely intuitive or an action for a reflection on a life event. The repetition of motion is like meditation and ritual. The repetition is never the same.
The freedom of movement is paralleled by the process of creating space among lines, forms, and marks that resonate the actions of navigating distance and space among people. The longer the movement, the deeper I can go into the subconscious of emotion and memory accumulated in the life journey. To reach, to fix, to answer the questions locked.
Image: Jingwei Bu performing Life Map Trap, 2021(Photo: Vision Studio).
Photos: Ying He