Victorian Sweeties 1999
With a poetic sensibility and irreverent wit, Mali Wu enjoys subverting the hierarchical structures in her art.
Description
With a poetic sensibility and irreverent wit, Mali Wu enjoys subverting the hierarchical structures in her art. As an artist who has exhibited internationally, she has contributed thought-provoking insights into the social, political, and historical contexts of her home, Taiwan. For the installation at the Mattress Factory, Wu has added to her collection of baby pictures of famous and lesser-known people – ranging from Hitler to the Dalai Lama – presenting them in brass frames in a Victorian setting. This space is reminiscent of a parlor found at the time of the building of the Mattress Factory. All the “babies” were born after the invention of the camera in the mid-1800s. All have already made their mark on history. Mali Wu points out, “Irrespective of what has occurred or what these people have become, there are aspects of human nature that are common to all of us.”
Artist Statement
We were all once children: no matter who you are or what
you are in this life.
And we all try hard in our lives to get back to this “condition.”
This constant desire to return to the “child condition”
Is beyond time and history.
It has been our past. And it will always be our dream of the future.
Born in Taipei in 1957, Wu graduated from the National Academy of Art in Dusseldorf, Germany. With a poetic sensibility and irreverent wit, Mali Wu enjoys subverting the hierarchical structures in her art. As an artist whom has exhibited internationally, she has contributed thought provoking insights into the social, political, and historical contexts of her home, Taiwan.