MFA Thesis_ Fluidity: the Self-Expression of Art
Kefan Bai
Artist Statement
Art is about the sense of belatedness. I am chasing after the evidence left behind beings and beauty’s arrival, and my works are the trajectories of that journey. My art is deeply rooted in my belief in paradoxes. Corporeality contradicts spirit, yet under different lenses, this contradiction can be the manifestation of confirmations between the two. My works have been developed around the subject of fluidity, focusing on the notions of contingency, transcendency, and the artwork’s self-performance. Fluidity is significant not only because it is relevant to social structures but also because I find myself to have become more and more similar to it. I have been studying abroad for nine years and moved eight times between cities. I have been drifting like and becoming as flexible as water, having grown up in a chaotic but generous world. Fluidity is a characteristic of water and a potent embodiment of wisdom that looks for the essence of the paradoxical universe through the sensational application of time to imply an uncertain form of beauty.