Yuan Fen - 緣分
September 2023
Recycled glass, acrylic paint and wood.
I have named this work Yuan Fen - a Chinese concept that roughly translates as ‘a fateful coincidence’. Sadly I don’t speak Mandarin or Cantonese so my understanding of this term is rudimentary. That being said, the essence of Yuan Fen was the inspiration for this work.
There is a Chinese proverb about Yuan Fen - the literal translation is as follows: It takes hundreds of rebirths to bring two persons to ride in the same boat; it takes a thousand eons to bring two persons to share the same pillow.
My Chinese Grandfather met my English Grandmother in Canada, a fleeting relationship led to the birth of my Father in Melbourne, Australia. Yuan Fen can be thought of as the mechanism by which family members have been "placed" in each other's lives. There is a second Chinese proverb "have fate without destiny" (有緣無分) which refers to couples who were fated to come together, but not destined to stay together, such was the case with my paternal Grandparents.
In this work I used the layering of glass to express the endless layers of chance and connection that tie our fates together. Looking through this work is akin to looking through time as it stretches infinitely behind and before us. I have loosely referenced the Shan shui - ‘mountain-water’, paintings of China, known for their towering mountains and dreamlike cloudscapes.
This work is a way for me to engage with the layers of my Chinese family that have faded away with time, as my ownYuan Fen unfolds perhaps there is a chance for us to be reunited.