Ada Eni Xu
'mythica (huà n)' 2024, Etching, aquatint, printed with etching ink on Wenzhou xuan paper (rice paper), 101cm x 33cm, 185cm x 60cm, 82cm x 33cm.
Artist statement
mythica (huà n) is an encouragement to practise describing our own futures through mythology and speculative storytelling. For me, that means attempting to form a stronger bond with my cultural background (from which I’ve been removed manifold) through drawing. It suspends in time a collage of mythological iconography, curated through meticulous processes of mark-making before a detailed world materialises. These worlds, previously used to explain our world, have now been relegated to fanciful entertainment, without consideration of their greater value in helping us envision our futures. But our visions and desires for the future are, much like my cultural connections, tenuous and precarious; light, shadows and movement change and shape the thin, almost translucent xuan paper, allowing the drawing to embody the space it occupies.
Acknowledgement of Country
UNSW School of Art & Design stands on an important place of learning and exchange first occupied by the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples.
We acknowledge the Bidjigal and Gadigal peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land that our students and staff share, create and operate on. We pay our respects to Elders past and present and extend this respect to all First Nations peoples across Australia. Sovereignty has never been ceded.
