AN ULTIMATE TOGETHERNESS
MEDIUM: OIL & CHARCOAL ON CANVAS, 11’ x 15’
ARTIST’S NOTE: “The corruption begins with the mouth, the tongue, the wanting. The first poem in the world is I want to eat.” (Erica Jong, 309). To swallow. To assimilate. To eat—I chant, as I have for months now, like some kind of unanswered prayer. To eat has always been the most powerful verb, representing much more than a means of dietary practice. It is sustenance, the reinvention of matter, the becoming of something divine, and the basis of my artistic inquiry. ‘an ultimate togetherness’ functions as one of six pieces within a completed body of work; How To Devour Me. This body seeks to unearth the tenderness of flesh, as I confront my obsessive and inconsolable urges that surface in love. Within it, I vividly reflect on my past, interrogating my most vulnerable sentiments behind hunger, devotion and sacrifice. There exists a most powerful metaphor for eating and desire, wherein one is possessed with the urge of consuming their beloved; an appetite. Here, the verb exceeds its biological demand for nourishment, and unfolds into this grotesque notion of ingesting, fusing or possessing the subject of one’s love. This hunger I reference is experiential. It is driven by something intangible, something unforeseen; a longing to become whole, to become one with the subject, to devour love itself. Within this series, I have chosen the body as the site through which I explore this metaphor. Through distortion, I aim to articulate the carnal nature of my desires, as flesh itself remains an offering, the medium through which one can achieve this wholeness. The works, which occupy the forms of oil paintings, function as confessions of sorts—a means of catharsis. Throughout their execution, there were always new questions to be answered, new truths to be told; How can I articulate these turbulent ideas of intensity? In what way must I treat the body to convey this sensation of yearning? How can I collapse these borders between bodies? What exactly am I confessing to everyone? How can I create a visual language that balances viscerality with love? These are all concerns that I still return to.
Su-Yung, 23, Trinidad & Tobago ✯ IG: @suyyun9
“Su-Yung (b.2002), is a multidisciplinary painter based in Trinidad and Tobago. Currently pursuing a BA in Fine Art from the University of the West Indies, her work seeks to unearth notions of the body; particularly how the body functions as a site of love, change and violence. Through the vulnerability of flesh, she interrogates ideas of hunger, devotion, sacrifice and the becoming of something sacred.”