Like a traditional Chinese handscroll, Witches are Flowers Sis stretches horizontally across twenty-five feet of paper and silk. The work depicts seemingly disparate subjects on a single picture plane, such as scenes of violence against women alongside abstract botanical motifs. Wang also incorporates short written texts, some of which describe her experiences as a transgender woman and a Chinese-born immigrant living abroad in the Netherlands. Borrowing from the ancient Chinese calligraphic practice of narrative image-making, Wang summons these vignettes of text and imagery almost like a spell. Conceived, according to the artist and as referenced in the title, under the symbolic power of witches, this work represents a call for the protection of bodily autonomy for women and genderqueer people.
Gallery label from 2023
