Artist Statement

In my recent practice, I imagine alternative worlds and selves to create narratives that grapple with issues of identity, sexuality and masculinity. My work employs hybrid cinema genres and analytical aspects of filmmaking to explore personal and collective emotions and histories, with a focus on the queer and immigrant experience. I am interested in examining the concept of representation -- the politics of seeing and being seen. There is a confessional nature in my work, a desire to unravel repressed emotions.

Constructed with photorealistic texture and physical lighting, I utilize 3D computer graphics as an artistic medium to create tableaux situated between reality and mentality, autobiography and fiction. I approach image-making as a theatrical endeavor, staging and rendering scenes with psychological tension to probe into the emotional landscape of the self. The influences of my work include slow cinema, theater, Japanese anime, and art historical references such as magical realism, performance and video art.

About the Artist

Poyen Wang is an artist and filmmaker, born and raised in Taiwan and currently based in New York City. His recent practice employs world-building through 3D computer graphics to create narratives that grapple with issues of identity, sexuality and masculinity. He has had solo exhibitions at the Taipei Digital Art Center, Taiwan; 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles; Flux Factory, New York; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. His work was recently exhibited in Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, and will be included in VIDEONALE.19 – Festival for Video and Time-Based Art at Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany. He is currently teaching at Hunter College and Pratt Institute in New York City.