A Gaze Across Time and Space by Jueyan Lin

COURSE: ART 107: Introduction to Digital Forms

MEDIUM: Digital Collage

DESCRIPTION:
This is a picture that was made with PS. I used a photo of an actress in modern times and a staged photo in the movie The Flowers Of War to form a contrast between modern times and the Republic of China, hoping to cause the public to think about war and the power of women.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
Touched by a line in the movie The Flowers Of War, I chose to create such an image. The movie The Flower Of War is a movie set in China’s Nanking Massacre, in which NiNi, an actress plays the role of a sassy and beautiful prostitute, Yumo. In this story, Yumo, a prostitute with a seemingly dirty soul, sacrifices her life to protect schoolgirls from being raped by the Japanese. This makes me imagine what kind of life a romantic and charming person like her could have had if she had lived in a peaceful era. I imagine that NiNi, an actress living in a peaceful era, might have imagined herself having a dramatic yet romantic life like Yumo, but Yumo, living in a war era, might have only wanted to have NiNi’s peaceful yet simple life. In this picture, I created a stare-down across time and space, where actress NiNi looks into the mirror and sees Yumo, the one in the parallel time and space. May there be no war in the world, and may every woman live the life she wants.