Dependent Arising

Yuan Wen

Dependent Arising reveals the observation and reflection of the ignorant life, which is a core concept of Buddhist practice. According to the ancient explanation, there are twelve links in a chain of existence or causation, identifying the origin of suffering and ignorance. They are ignorance, conception, consciousness, name and form, six sense, contact, sensation, desire, grasping, existing, birth, and death. Through visual practice, this series of works explore forming of life in ideological and biomorphic expression. Along with the textural mapping procedure, the automatic drawing develops in the chaotic and mutual relationships with various elements intertwining in the interior and exterior space. While the process is going, the questions are arising. How does thought emerge? Where is the direction? Why are they entangling? Do we aware that our existence is a process of the infinite flow of thoughts?

Dependent Arising I
2022
Intaglio Print, Copper Etching, Monotype, Drawing
30″x 22″

Dependent Arising II
2022
Intaglio Print, Copper Etching, Monotype, Drawing
30″x 22″

Dependent Arising III
2022
Intaglio Print, Copper Etching, Monotype, Drawing
30″x 22″

Dependent Arising IV
2022
Intaglio Print, Copper Etching, Monotype, Drawing
30″x 22″

Dependent Arising V
2022
Intaglio Print, Copper Etching, Monotype, Drawing
30″x 22″

Dependent Arising I, II, III, IV, V (click an image to view at full size)

Artist Statement

My practice focuses on printmaking and drawing. Derived from a sense of Asian art, I attempt to increase the natural and artificial dynamic by combining various traditional elements and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations. Through exploring the techniques of print media, I appreciate the graphic quality of the medium that can lend itself to dramatic contrasts and angular shapes of subjects. The cross-cultural experience and the obsessions with ancient art are my great passion throughout my practice. Within the awareness of being a part of the diversity, my work opens the interpretation to viewers by not showing the completed structure, which tries to develop a form that does not follow specific models but is based only on subjective relations. The process of making always inspires me to move forward, and each new experiment passes through my following work to keep examining a new language of eastern concepts in a western community, which leads me constantly work on the possibilities of contemporary print.

Yuan Wen

Yuan Wen graduated from the Visual and Creative Arts program at Chongqing Technology and Business University. She moved to Canada in 2009 and studied at Mohawk College where she obtained her Graphic Design Diploma in 2018. She later pursued her studies at Langara College and Emily Carr University in Vancouver. During her journey of art study, Wen won several design competitions and received Judge W. K. Warrender Award 2018 and Honorary Studio Award 2020. She has exhibited her printmaking and drawing work in British Columbia and Ontario.

Profile image of Yuan Wen