CAISON WANG

Titled after Hyperion, referring to the “one who passes through the sky or looks down from the sky” in Greek mythology, Hyperland observes fictional characters Jack and Mary through the lens of an omniscient narrator. Illustrated as two skeletal figures, Jack and Mary are neutral representations of human beings. As if the protagonists to one continuous story, the figures are seen acting out different scenarios in each artwork while immersed in surrealist landscapes that the artist built via 3-D modeling software. Combining digital lattices with near-psychedelic colors evocative of either enlightenment or hell, Caison Wang’s artworks allude to the idea that pain or transcendence under the context of morality is but an artificial construct generated by and for the human psyche. A perplexing amalgamation of idyllic and dystopic imagery, Hyperland proposes more than a rejection of the pre-existing definitions of good versus evil but issues a challenge toward all dichotomies set forth by dogmatic philosophies.

Caison Wang’s practice interweaves the physical, virtual, and spiritual. Crafting new visual symbols, patterns, and characters via a range of tangible and digital media, her works explore the new-found fluidity of religion, materialism, and morality in contemporary society. As exemplified in Hyperland, her construction of imagined topographies using 3-D modeling addresses the notion of an omniscient and omnipotent creator in the post-technology era. In the dawn of humanity’s acquired ability to build, fabricate, but also destroy and annihilate new realities, Wang elucidates a philosophical conundrum in which she asks: Do gods still exist and if so, what differs them and us?