A Visit to the Witt

For this week, I didn't really know where to start until I remembered that there was a student show in the Witt Gallery. One rainy day with one of my classes being cancelled, I thought I would take the time to visit said gallery on display. It turned out that I loved what I saw. The exhibition was done by Linda Vang, a girl deeply rooted in Hmong culture. She is particularly fond of nature and wanted to use that as her basis to express her ideas in combination with her culture.

The first few pieces I viewed had no color. They were well done, but the lack of color confused and puzzled me. As it turned out, these pieces were the start of Linda's ideas. It is from here that she incorporated what would be the basis and main concentration of these specific works in the exhibition.

With her addition of color, Linda was able to breathe extra life into her paintings. She used color to express the many seasons of the year in line with how she wanted to portray a sense of nature in all of her works.

After a bit more experimenting, Linda moved on to larger sized pieces that did more than simply add a vibrant touch to her works. She began to incorporate her experiences and beliefs into what she painted. In her mind, they took the forms of many ideas from her past. These were then translated onto the canvas into symbolic forms that the viewer must interpret. I myself had a tough time interpreting some of the allusions she portrayed. If it's one thing about art, a person can view it one way while another can see it in a completely different light. I will honestly say that if it were not for the titles and her statement, I would not have had an easy time with the interpretations.

 Let's take the piece on the right for example. It seems simple enough, with one glance. There is a sphere atop what seems to be an organic and natural pedestal in some cave with hanging beads. From a simple description, one would think that is all there is to the piece. But as we know, symbolism and interpretation is the pinnacle of art. With one read of the piece's title, Thoughts of Mother, it suddenly opens up a plethora of new ways to analyze it. Being Hmong, Linda has a tradition of embroidering outfits. It can be interpreted that the beads might represent a memory or even current thought of how her mother embroidered clothing. It might be a memory of a time she was taught by her mother on how to embroider outfits or even a time she embroidered outfits with her mother. With a title and proper analysis, we can start to form ideas of our own a begin to better understand why Linda chose the colors she used or the figures she painted.

A final thought I would like to add is that there is a sphere on the majority if not all of Linda's pieces. This sphere, piqued my interest the moment I saw it. Psychologically speaking, humans are innately drawn to simple and clean shapes. As can be seen from olden works or even the belief of the Vitruvian Man, we as a species are drawn to shapes such as circles and simple polygons like squares. Line is also very capable at capturing us with just some clever placement. With the inclusion of a sphere in all of her works, Linda has manged to do two things that are quite fascinating. First, she has captured our eye by drawing us to a focal point which  gives us a start from where to initially interpret the work. We can easily look elsewhere, but it is unmistakable that the sphere is the draw to our attention.


The second and perhaps most important thing the sphere does is show us a bit about Linda herself. With it appearance in almost all of the pieces, it can be assumed that the sphere is supposed to be Linda. With how she wants to blend her culture and tradition with nature, we can say that the sphere is an extension of her thoughts and ideas. That would then make the surrounding the  manifestation of these thoughts or even the inclusion or acceptance of new thoughts. But once again, the beauty of art is how it can be interpreted. The presence of otherworldly thoughts combined with grounded ones create a contemporary mesh that makes Linda's work hard to truly pin down. With a simple glance or a good long look, there is a world that she shows us that we can only hope to truly understand.