O d i l i a Fu
Copyright ©2004-10 Odilia Fu Studio, Inc. All rights reserved.
“My art encompasses history with imagination and emotions.”
Odilia's work has a diverse range of styles based on her multi-cultural background. She
combines the use of photography, painting, digital manipulation and abstraction.
Japanese animations and British pop rock were major influences during her teen years
in Hong Kong. After moving to the United States, her works are inspired by American Pop
Art, Abstract Expressionism and the glamorous world of advertising. She draws material
from her own memories and relates them with social, political events happened around
her.
Traditionally, photography is regarded as a tool to document the facts. The artist started
with rephotographing or digitally altered her own old photographs to detach the original
meaning and add ambiguity to the subject matter. Painting and digital manipulation
introduces surreality, fantasy and emotions to create visual imagery. The painted or
transformed work will then be photographed repeatedly to reinforce the artist’s idealistic
‘truth’ which in turns being conveyed to her audiences.
"Let Our Flowers Bloom in Bulowville" created 2010
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
-Declaration of Independence
This series of artworks is derived from the artist's original photographs taken
during an academic field trip to Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park in 1998.
Seeds with blood and sweat were blown onto the land of the free and the home of the
brave. From generation to generation, Americans witness their struggles, blossoms and
deaths. The abstract paintings and digital enhancement over the Bulow Plantation
photographs are metaphorical representation of America's progress in civil rights. The
election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States
signifies a historic victory in overcoming racial barriers. The original photographs are
transformed with the artist’s poetic imagination and the final works are photographed
again to document her wishful “truth”.
History of Bulow Plantation
http://www.myfloridahistory.org/collections/manuscripts/bulow_bucknor
“The Battle" created 2010
A series of artworks inspired by faded memory of the artist’s visit to Iwo Jima Memorial,
Washington DC, in year 2000. The sequence of images and videos of American football
players on the Internet and television evokes the notions of meanings, and memories of
events happened in the past decade in America.
The artist took photographs of football games playing on TV as armature; then utilized
digital technologies and paintings to transform the objects into her own stories.
Embedded with emotions, she contemplates social and political issues; ponders
questions on the veracity of history, the interpretation of the mass media; extrapolates
into future expectations.
"The Voting Game" created 2008
The artist uses humor and satire as a vehicle to explore the 2008 presidential election
and its relationship with the voters. The artist herself is a second-time voter. She captured
these photographic images using a digital camera in front of the television screen as if
she were at the scene. The images were then digitally manipulated. Her desire was to
isolate an image and freeze the moments of wit, humanity, victory and defeat. She invited
the audiences to interpret her motives and ideas, in which their interpretations would
change with the passage of time.
Her work is influenced by pop culture and mass-media. The political figures were
transformed into consumption-oriented, media-driven characters and the
voters simply became consumers. These virtual images eventually become reality and
are part of our memory.
"A Decade After: Reminiscences Of A Vanishing Hometown, Loss And Desire"
created 2007
The artist was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Los Angeles. Her impression of her
hometown is still in the era of pre-1997 under the British rule; associated with the “new
changes” she perceives from the media on the Internet. Her last visit back to Hong Kong
was in 2004. The differences in the sense of values and cultures; the change of
cityscapes; the change in demographics; the demolition of colonial landmarks. She
found a disconnection with her family and friends she grew up with. Her personal
imaginary hometown and emotions was completely buried and repressed by her visit.
This series of artworks is derived from old black/white photographs of her own. The
photographs become jumping off points for her imagination. With the utilization of digital
technologies, she transforms emotions and memories into abstract contemporary works.
From there, she expresses longing, sadness and loneliness for the loss of her good old
days. At the same time, she reveals hope, discontent and desire for her own
imaginary brave new world. Her works ponder questions about life, society, cultural and
political issues; and provoke the viewers to interpret her stories and suspicions.