Nalian comes from my personal experience of separation and loss.
Since I was a child, my family has lived apart. My father, my mother and I lived in three different countries. After 17 years, we slowly began to come back together, starting with my mother's return.
Over time, I came to understand that recovery is not only about finding again what was lost, but also about accepting, caring for, and reuniting the parts that were once separated.
The female figure in this work represents my mother. To me, she is one of the important parts of the process of putting the pieces of our family's life back together.
I then translated this idea into pieces of linen that I stitched together by hand. Fragments that were once separate are brought back together as a metaphor for wounds, recovery, and the human will to become whole again.
Everyone may have experienced wounds or loss in their lives. Yet I believe that people always carry the urge to seek, accept, and reunite the pieces of themselves, even though the wholeness they find may no longer be the same as before.
The work begins with gathering pieces of linen, which I then stitch together by hand into a single whole. Once the stitched structure is formed, I begin to paint the figure of a woman, adjusting the composition and the position of the subject to the lines of stitching already made.
The final stage adds stitches on the outer surface of the canvas, both as an aesthetic element and to strengthen the visual character of the work.
