ZhuangZi's Butterfly

STUDENT
Xueyan Wang

COURSE
Art 429- 3D Digital Studio I

MEDIUM
Digital Imagery

See this Project!

This was initially for a course assignment that asked us to create a self portrait. I decided to try to articulate one particular emotion, or maybe a series of thoughts, that is personally important to me. The work resonates with the story of ZhuangZi's dream of himself becoming a butterfly, in which the ancient Chinese philosopher questions after waking up, 'Did I dream of myself becoming a butterfly? Or am I the dream of a butterfly?' In creating this part digital and part hand-drawn work, I was interested in exploring the delicate relationship of what’s considered realities to what’s thought of as non-realities. The work helped me articulate and reflect on the delicate notion of distinguishing the two as separates.