KATHERINE QIYU SU
How Far is the Foreign Lands
Artist Reception: April 30th, 6-8 PM
April 30th - May 25th, 2024
Curated by Stavroula Coulianidis
Beijing in February is a dream that ended too early for me. The tragedy of geography had been planted and the roots sprouted. It has been more than 500 days since I last stood on the land of my hometown, and the memories shadowed by uncertainty have become more turbulent. My existence was as light as a feather, how can I measure the weight of the memories that settled in it? The road that goes on and on towards the mountain is like a giant that keeps approaching, but infinitely moves backward. In the darkness, I vaguely see the trees open arms, swallowing up the shadows and neon lights heading towards it.
“Katherine Qiyu Su: How Far is the Foreign Lands”, curated by Stavroula Coulianidis, presents intimate reflections of my upbringing, personal nostalgia, and internal views. Old and new recollections are intertwined and oscillate between reality and fiction. The seven paintings explore the shadowy borderland between truth and memory, authorship and identity within. Through them, I examine how things are remembered, how they lose their shape, and how they can be manipulated.
These multi-layered paintings aim to share moments of both familiarity and disassociation, challenging my identity. Each layer reveals a distant and precious recollection of my experiences. Old memories become fragments and are reconstructed into new narratives. By rediscovering my past, I seek possibility out of impossible situations, and the ambiguous forms directed by emotions, shape new motifs and interpretations. These narratives melt into organic patterns, becoming a performance on the linen, transforming between figuration and abstraction.
Katherine Qiyu Su (b. 1999 in Beijing, China) lives and works in London. She completed an BA in Interior Design at the North China University of Technology (2021), and an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in London (2023). Her work has been exhibited at Thom Oosterhof Project, London (2023), St. Art Gallery, London (2023), Plain Gallery, Milan (2023), Candid House Projects, London (2023), Studio West Gallery, London (2023), Alessandro Albanese Gallery, Milan (2024), and Ojiri Gallery, London (2024).