Bifei Cao Annual PHD research Exhibition

In between is the progression after one year of exploring ideology and methodology in object making. Building contemporary narrative work around a personal interpretations from past life experience from my Chinese homeland fused with recent experience in United States and then current life in Australia.

The work began by drawing diverse details from my traditional culture, from farming events of my childhood memory, Samshu making, fishing and picking lotus root. These subjects are not represented directly, but are transformed and re-constructed with influences from the ways that ancient Chinese philosophy, Cosmology, Confucianism and Taoism shaped traditional Chinese visual culture. This methodology allowed me to create layered visual forms, structures and symbols within an ‘Eastern’ thinking that is open to a broader worldview.

This exhibition also presents a process of change between autonomous sculptural objects and more intimate smaller scale jewellery. Through this I discovered a relationship between tradition and innovation, ancient philosophy and personal experience, merging to form universal potential meanings within an individual expression. Composition and precision quickly capture the viewer’s eye, while the complex stories perceived through closer engagement communicate with the viewer more profoundly.