Luan Gallery, Beijing

My works for this exhibition concentrated on the theme of ‘Witch’. In the history of Western culture, witch means a woman who possesses magic. Often using herbs to create illusions, they are also associated with ‘midwives’ and ‘spinning threads’, and are seen as dangerous, socially harmful, and even terrifying. People - usually men - feared the supernatural powers behind ‘witches’. We now know that so-called ‘supernatural forces’ are not readily observable. ‘Witches were actually feared by society because they did not conform to the social norms of women at the time. ‘Hallucination’ was often associated with “seduction” and became an excuse for men to justify their mistakes: “I was seduced by the devil”, thus blaming their misbehaviour on the “beautiful, single or widowed woman”. The beautiful, single or widowed woman. The midwife, who can help a newborn baby come to life, sometimes helps a woman who does not want to get pregnant to have an abortion, which is contrary to the positive image of motherhood that women are expected to be born with. ‘Spinning thread, which used to be a woman's task, was regarded as a ‘coven of witches’ who secretly plotted evil things when women came together to spin thread and whisper about it. So we can see that this kind of single, autonomous women, who were not disciplined by the rules of the male society of the time, is the real meaning of ‘witch’. Even after 200 years, the power of women behind ‘witches’ is still influencing women all over the world. American author Robin Morgan founded the radical women's group WITCH in 1968, which stands for Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell. The group's manifesto is as follows:

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‘If you are a woman
and dare to look at yourself.
then you are a witch.
--The WITCH Manifesto
New York, 1968

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In addition to echoing today's feminism, the identity of the ‘witch’ is also inextricably linked to the occult. People who are ‘witches’ by profession can often use ‘witchcraft’ to foretell the future and communicate with higher supernatural forces through rituals. ‘Foretelling the future’ is usually associated with astrology and tarot cards, where the future is interpreted through certain images or symbols. Rituals, on the other hand, are more closely related to ‘religion’ and are often associated with the traditional culture of a particular region, using music, dance, etc. to enter a state of ‘presence’ and achieve ‘ecstasy’, i.e., madness. The occult part itself already carries the The occult part itself has a rich cultural heritage and reflects the vision of the future that human societies place on ‘rituals’ and ‘supernatural powers’. From a philosophical point of view, witchcraft associated with ‘religion’ is a reflection of man's knowledge of himself, his understanding of ‘life’ and his experience of the world around him. Nowadays, with the high development of technology, I hope that through the discovery of ‘primitive world knowledge’ and ‘witches’, we can inspire the audience to think about how to have a transcendental experience as an individual, how to understand oneself and life, and how to think about the ‘power of women’. ‘I hope that by presenting this theme, the audience will be inspired to think about how they as independent individuals can have a transcendental experience, how they understand themselves and life, and how they can pay attention to the power of women. By presenting this theme, I hope to awaken people to the excessive egoism described in Han Byung-chul's Burn-out society, and to return to the oneness of body and soul under the ‘ritual’ of this exhibition.