Alternative Oriental
by Roujia Wang
‘Alternative Oriental’ experiments with the potential of portraiture to reclaim and authenticate images through a personal lens, as a Chinese woman living in the West, against the backdrop of the Orientalist gaze in art and culture.
Song of a Pipa Player (Pi Pa Xing), Oil Paint on Canvas Board, 35.6 x 25.4cm, 2023
Anna May Wong, the first Chinese-American Hollywood star, was a major inspiration for this project. She became a point of resonance and reflection as I explored the similarities between our experiences with stereotypes in media and our lives. The Pipa player, a motif in traditional Chinese art symbolizing feminine fragility, represents the internal cultural gaze, while Wong’s image epitomizes the external gaze, both reducing my experience to limiting archetypes. Through stylistic experiments of the Pipa player image, I explore the tension between these stereotypes and my reality.
Later in the project, the diptych portraits directly paid homage to the artist women’s tradition of self-portraiture as artists. The diptych was a response to the tension revealed by the Pipa Player series, contrasting my queer, self-expressive side with the traditional, feminine image that reflects societal expectations back home. The portraits mirror my experience of navigating between two distinct cultures and seeking reconciliation between them as both are parts of my identity.
The final part of my project features two acrylic self-portraits in response to Gauguin’s Nevermore (1897) and Modigliani’s Nude (1916). Influenced by Yuki Kihara’s reinterpretation of Gauguin’s legacy and Leslie Sanderson’s self-portrait, the paintings attempt to reclaim Oriental images by inserting a more authentic narrative. They directly engage with art history’s colonial legacy and Orientalist tropes, presenting me as a Chinese woman confident and comfortable in her own skin.
Nude (Reinterpretation of Modigliani), Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 50.8 x 40.64cm, 2024
Nevermore (Reinterpretation of Gauguin), Acrylic Paint on Canvas, 40.64 x 50.8cm, 2023
