Artist statement:
"Identity of motherhood is entangled with being an artist, knowing how materials work, using processes that are similar to domestic life allows familiarity with the forms, and muscle memory, so that I am able to engage with the subtleties of the materials. How it moves and responds to my hands and the kitchen tools that I utilize to create the work. This reminds me in many ways of engaging with my children and family. That my behavior, or response to them and their needs shifts with each incident, and due to their personality they too respond to the same action in different ways. In the artwork this is reflected through the way that some clay remains very flat, and thin, while others have a wave, curve or frill. The gathering of these actions over and over reflects in some ways the moments accumulated each day and each year building into something beautiful."
Weiting Wei (b.1984) grew up in Fujian, China and immigrated to the USA in 2014, she lives and works in Columbus, OH. Weiting received a Bachelor of Education, Fujian Huanan Women’s Vocational College in China and her MFA from Columbus College of Art & Design in Columbus, OH. She has shown her work nationally and internationally most recently at Yellowstone Art Museum, MT, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, TX, Evansville Museum, IN, Zanesville Museum, OH, and China.
Her work is centered on identity as a mother and caregiver entangled with being an artist, knowing how materials work, using processes that are similar to domestic life allows familiarity with the forms, and muscle memory, so that she is able to engage with the subtleties of the materials, how it moves and responds to her hands and the kitchen tools that she utilize to create the work. Which show many ways how mom engaging with children and family. That parent’s behavior or response to kids and their needs shifts with each incident.
Her works include the use of white porcelain to represent pregnancy, and the use of rice paper to represent the muscle state around the cesarean incision, also refers to the experience of the postnatal depression by creating a enormous wall art by sculptured the rice paper to empty lotus pods shape wrapped around by wax, and using polymer clay to explore very personal, yet universal, experiences of motherhood.
Her recent works focus on the paradox of parenting, specifically, being the primary caregiver. As she creates the forms, it provides her with peace and relief from the anxiety and tension. Even though she may reflect on the moments of her day that she is least proud of while she is making, the artwork promotes an invitation to look closer, to study the details contained within its monochrome and stark surfaces, the intricacies and beauty, we can overlook if we are not careful.
Denotes MAC-Presented Program