Chloe Wing – Caged

My name is Chloe and I make light and shadow paper cutting installations as well as music. They are all based on myself and people I know and contain themes of emotion and trauma within the memory, isolation, alienation and lack of autonomy. Essentially what I make are inner perspectives and microcosms that allow the viewer to enter the mind of an individual, one that is filled with haunting yet hopeful thoughts.

I hand cut everything so that I have a close relationship to what I make, and I write music in a very intuitive way as well. We are made up of such complex layers of personality, experience, history and this encapsulates the psychosocial situation that I am so fascinated by. My work exposes anxiety and mental struggles as well as the human need to belong within a community and by juxtaposing both the inside (individual) and outside (social) I can show how they can compliment and conflict.

I am interested in how the mind invisibly guides us on a daily basis and how powerful and forceful it can be. I look at how emotions are not really valued in society, yet they affect everybody. Emotions can connect us and divide us, they are a universal language that can bring fulfilment and they can damage.

Psychology is an important aspect of our lives, but it is not appreciated as much as material, scientific and physical aspects of our everyday lives. I think that this relates to the spiritual as well, that such internal realms within us are so very real yet at the same time not tangible. This ethereal nature is what I try to depict in my cut out installations, the fragility and the strength of thoughts that dictate what we do and shape who we are. My work is delicate and ethereal like a feeling, an atmosphere…

I create ‘cages’ because essentially we are restricted, educated and influenced by society, yet we may not perceive it because we are so used to these ideas and patterns. Can we ever overcome them or are they just inevitable parts of being human?

My work is expressionistic and confessional rather like a diary and is a healing and cathartic process. It is not so much about making something but rather a release, therefore making music and repetitively hand cutting paper is almost like a meditation, a way to just focus on something purely and to not worry about the outside world too much. I feel my art is a way to understand myself and the world, to escape and find resolve where there may not be any in the present.

Find Chloe here:  www.chloewing.com