Of daydreams and nightmares
Artwork by Luce Hua, Winner of the 2023 Vallum Art Prize
Statement from Luce Hua
From my first collage piece “of dreams” in 2021 to this series “Of daydreams and nightmares” in 2023, the cuts and layers over this period of time piece together a through narrative of art as a continual dream state for me.
This collection pulls and weaves the wool of the ideal and ‘real’ over (and under) critical aspects of identity; it is a small representation, a particular angle and nuance, on broader themes of culture, race, ethnicity, colour, ability, and queerness. It is my taste flight of fancy in the growth and inspiration that has come from ‘winging it’ as a queer artist of colour: each collage piece is a different flavour of ‘the dreamy and not so dreamy’.
The transparency in each of the collage pieces indicate spaces through which ideas and whims can flow. They also become a means of exposition on the flow between daymares and nightdreams through the interplay of literal shadow and light, and the interplay of the elements of nightmarish sentimentality and daydreamy edges. Elements of which I have pulled and posed to create what has been beautifully described and aptly ascribed as ‘doom whimsy’.
My stories here are not told solely through the composition of the collage, both the visual end product and the creation process, but derived and transformed necessarily from the origins of the original imagery itself: “Micronightmares” introduces this series with a Chinese woman laying down at the hospital. With eyes cut and breath trailing out, and surrounded by wings, hands, and buildings: it is a visceral commentary on microaggressions and tone policing.
In contrast, the final piece “Cross my eyes and hope to dream” features a Chinese child sitting up at the hospital for ‘crossed eyes’ holding onto a flyaway laundry line through the window: not yet bound by the lines of monotony and daily struggle, the billowing shapes and folds tell stories in the shadows. With eyes crossed, the child sees beyond the physical and crosses the threshold of sight between dreams and nightmares. Dreams can also be nightmares can also be dreams.
Luce Hua is an analogue and digital collage artist. Their style is ‘bleeding heart romanticism’, both in the figurative and in the literal visual sense. Their analogue art utilizes local materials that they can find for free: flyers, ads, catalogues, postsecondary student publications (their favourite!), along with the occasional purchased find. Their digital art utilizes prominent symbols and themes in intentionally rough rather than completely blended overlayed ways.
