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LIAN’S MANIFESTO

Art is a way to live.
Art is where two souls meet: that of the artist and the viewer.
Art may raise questions and gives answers too.
Art lives in every single being.
Art brings awareness.
Art is created from everyday life.
Art brings to the light what is inside you.
Art lives in everything and everything lives in Art.
Art is where you can loose and find yourself.
Art is individual and universal at the same time.
Art can bring you everywhere.
Art lives in the present.
Art can be observed, listened, smelled, tasted and touched.
Art finds its essence in gratitude.

I believe in the coincidences of fate.
I believe that our emotions are our seasons.
I believe in Aloneness rather than Loneliness.
I believe that everything is just a point of view.

Two months ago I wrote this Manifesto which expresses my beliefs at 20 years old based on my life experience. For me Fine Art is one of the endless possible ways to experience the world. I often used photography as an inspiration or base for my drawings and paintings because I\'m interested in the transition of one idea through different mediums.

I'm interested in the concept of a transitional space suspended between two dimensions or two places that involves the principle of a bridge that connects together two different realities. In my work I explore what happens between two states of mind or two physical places. What are the feelings that you get from that experience? The present moment is on its own a transitional time between our past and our future as human being. We can't always be fixed in the same place or mental state because all life is about movement and fluidity.

These drawings have been inspired by some black & white photographs of the World War II published in The Atlantic in July 2011 by Alan Taylor. I found them very wonderful and surprisingly quiet and poetic. I was interested in recreating this kind of melancholic atmosphere in my drawings and a sense of wondering too.

I have a strong passion for photography, especially for black and white film. Last year I learnt how to process and develop film camera in the dark room. When I have time for myself I love to take a walk with my Nikon film camera and catch all those little moments when everything seems in a perfect harmony. I have always been fascinated by the photographic world of Edouard Boubat. I deeply admire his capacity to catch the atmosphere of a place with mastery and delicacy. As he once said, in photography we used some wonderful words as for example aperture. The diaphragm is, as we all know, a mechanical thing but it is also our “aperture” that open us to the world. After all, life is also vulnerability.

There is always a psychological process involved in my art practice. For me it is essential to explore also the dimension of the unconscious. My creations always tell me more about myself and how I perceive the world around me. I think it is almost impossible to do not identify with your own work because you always put something in it that belongs to you. Your sensations, memories, emotions, beliefs, fears, thoughts, and so on, continue to live in what you create. I always feel that my creations are an extension of myself.

I'm currently doing my first year of BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London.