Tianning Ma
Artist in practice currently based in London, UK
Artist Statement
My art practice mainly focus on the recreation and rediscovery of existing story and form that we are too familiar with. Through depictions of strange form of landscape, ambiguous outline of human shape, and unrecognizable elements, I try to create narrative scenarios and object presentations that exist in a slightly alternative dimension of our current "nothing new under the sun" universe.
My theme ranges from alternative landscape to mysterious organic forms, many with reference from ancient literature and philosophical concepts. Based on the subject matter, the style of my work ranges yet mostly lays in the middle of the spectrum of being absolutely abstract and totally figurative, as I believe that the ambiguity of the art work could resonate with old memory and emotion of people, so that it has potential to be retold and felt. There are two themes that I am particularly interested in making ongoing researches for: the atomic internet life and portrait of human from both the objective stare and subjective perspective. Inspired by artists like Miriam Cahn, Nicola Tyson, Kim Dorland, Milton Avery and Shōmei Tomatsu, my work reproduces similar visual and aura, with emphasis on the emotional expression - from the feeling of being bizarre, ethereal to being intense or devastated, and with the intuitive, quick brush approach of execution.
From questioning the sole legitimate interpretation of the only reality we live in, and looking back to retell story of the childhood memory of human race, more unknown potential freedom could be uncovered since people are away from the original "self" for so long.