font VII

2021 - Sculpture (Sculpture)

6 x 15 x 9 cm

Catalina Ouyang

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font VII by Catalina Ouyang is part of an ongoing series of ‘fonts’, or sculptures, inspired by Catholic holy water vessels. This particular iteration from the series combines hand-carved soapstone, a stop loss trap, horse hair, fermented egg, and other elements to create an artwork that defies categorization. The work’s most notable feature is a small cavity that cradles a naked egg—a translucent, flaccid egg without its outer shell. Whereas most people associate sacred water with baptismal vows, Ouyang expands on the ritualist vessel as a place of possibilities by invoking Delueze and Guattari’s concept of the egg, or “body without organs (or BwO)”. In this example, the BwO is a metaphor for an undifferentiated, non-hierarchical realm that exists beneath the world of appearances. Ouyang characterizes the egg, which is devoid of production and function, as a body that develops from chaos, while still moving in constant proximity to annihilation. Such conceptual tensions are typical of Ouyang’s material and formal choices, as well as the types of associations that form across the artist’s objects and installations. The work is a mesmerizing convergence of elements that transmit a sense of loss and recovery, especially on a plane where words are rendered insufficient and can only be accessed through material relations.

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Catalina Ouyang investigates themes of desire, subjugation, and dissidence through object-making, transdisciplinary contexts, and time-based works. Ouyang’s artwork examines how a subject navigates physical and sociopolitical space: what histories and discourses are inscribed on the body, and how the body coexists with architecture and bureaucratic processes. In writing about their practice, Ouyang emphasizes the critical re-imaging of historical formation wherein monstrosity, animality, and toxicity serve as ciphers for the psycho-affective alienation of the minor subject.

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Colors:

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• materiality.n.02
• ritual.n.01
• doctrine.n.01
• religion.n.02
• spirituality.n.02