ARTISTS STATEMENT
This painting from the series ‘Mirrors’ explores the relationship between my mother and me, framed through an intriguing moment shared with my pet dog. I disturbed the dog’s peaceful sleep, and although it instinctively reacted with a moment of fright, it still trusted me completely, rolling over to expose its belly without hesitation. As someone who is asexual and bisexual, and who has chosen not to have children, pets offer me a way to understand and embody the experience of motherhood from a unique perspective. In the context of contemporary China, where traditional patriarchy and new-wave feminism exist in tension, a distinct family model has emerged: the parent-child relationship entirely replacing the husband-wife relationship (and by extension, the sexual relationship) due to the fragility of romantic connections. As the core element of that structure, the pet dog serves as a mirror, spiritually reflecting the essence of motherhood through the entangled dynamics of interdependence and separability, despotism versus obedience, guard and invasion while also practically acting as a lubricant in my relationship with my mother.
In the work ‘Chinese cloth tiger’， a cloth tiger is a traditional Chinese toy given by mothers or other female elders to kids to express their wishes for a safe and happy life. From the perspective of an expatriate, fabric fragments into threads due to the distance, yet the tiger continues to stand guard, symbolizing an unbreakable emotional bond.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Born in Shanghai, China, Yutian Deng is a painter, sculptor, and classical Chinese poetry writer currently based in Chicago. Her works stem from the intricate cultural perceptions shaped by her past experiences and the collective subconscious memories of contemporary China, which ultimately find release through the theme of animals. In a collectivist society where both individual subjectivity and animal rights are often overlooked, the shared marginalization of individuals and animals forces them to remain silent under grand narratives. Through her interactions with pets, she discovered the emotional connection between humans and animals, where human nature and animality reflect each other as mirrors within the collective subconscious. Through her outpouring of artistic expression, this observation also transforms into a healing process for emotional trauma. Her paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Chengdu, China. She plans to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2026.
© Yutian Deng