Woman's Face is Secret Language
A generative art work by WANG Hailei
A generative art work by WANG Hailei
Woman's Face is Secret Language No.1
Artist Statement
How you perceive “Woman’s Face is Secret Language” changes depending on the distance you’re standing from it and the angle you’re viewing it from. When you’re standing directly in front of it, from a distance under five or so meters, is appears to simply be colorful squares, each filled with a mysterious symbol. But at that distance, you can’t make out what the whole image is. It’s when you stand back from it, say at ten meters or so, suddenly you see it’s a woman's face.
There’s a difference when I watch a woman from a distance compared to when I’m very close to her. I think you can’t really know a woman – you can’t really see her, if you are too close to her. It’s when you are at a distance from her that you can finally see her – understand her – more clearly. To really know a woman, you need to be able to gauge the “appropriate” distance from her you need to be, to let her relax, put down her guard, take off her mask and show you her real essence.
The symbols in the image are Nüshu, a mysterious language that had started hundreds of years ago and still lives in a few villages in southern China. For centuries, Nüshu was passed down from mother to daughter, secretly, and used for recording and exchanging thoughts and emotions. Men were never taught Nüshu and it appeared to them to be secret. It was. Nüshu symbols were often woven into women's garments. Men could see the symbols but had no idea what they meant. In ancient China, men made various rules for limiting a woman’s freedom, like keeping her from receiving a formal education. Those limitations are, like the pixilated squares enclosing the symbols in the image, the reasons that Nüshu was created.
For me, a woman's face is like Nüshu: men can see it, but they can’t understand it. A woman’s expression, even her body language, might not represent her real feelings and thoughts. Maybe this is particularly the case with an Asian woman, whose reserved and measured manner makes her appear peaceful but mysterious, hiding from the men around her what she’s really thinking.
The gallerist at Yuanfen, David Ben Kay, has noted, anecdotally, that about 90% of all men who enter the gallery, immediately recognize it’s an image of a woman’s face and about 90% of the women don’t, even after being told what the image is. David’s theory is that men’s and women’s brains and how they perceive objects are different. David says, “Men are hunters and their brains and eyes are built to discern objects from a distance – as they do when spotting animals through the branches and leaves in a forest when on a hunt. Women, on the other hand, are mothers and their brains and eyes are built to focus on details – as they do when holding an infant to their breast to feed.”
WANG Hailei 王海磊
March 2010
How you perceive “Woman’s Face is Secret Language” changes depending on the distance you’re standing from it and the angle you’re viewing it from. When you’re standing directly in front of it, from a distance under five or so meters, is appears to simply be colorful squares, each filled with a mysterious symbol. But at that distance, you can’t make out what the whole image is. It’s when you stand back from it, say at ten meters or so, suddenly you see it’s a woman's face.
There’s a difference when I watch a woman from a distance compared to when I’m very close to her. I think you can’t really know a woman – you can’t really see her, if you are too close to her. It’s when you are at a distance from her that you can finally see her – understand her – more clearly. To really know a woman, you need to be able to gauge the “appropriate” distance from her you need to be, to let her relax, put down her guard, take off her mask and show you her real essence.
The symbols in the image are Nüshu, a mysterious language that had started hundreds of years ago and still lives in a few villages in southern China. For centuries, Nüshu was passed down from mother to daughter, secretly, and used for recording and exchanging thoughts and emotions. Men were never taught Nüshu and it appeared to them to be secret. It was. Nüshu symbols were often woven into women's garments. Men could see the symbols but had no idea what they meant. In ancient China, men made various rules for limiting a woman’s freedom, like keeping her from receiving a formal education. Those limitations are, like the pixilated squares enclosing the symbols in the image, the reasons that Nüshu was created.
For me, a woman's face is like Nüshu: men can see it, but they can’t understand it. A woman’s expression, even her body language, might not represent her real feelings and thoughts. Maybe this is particularly the case with an Asian woman, whose reserved and measured manner makes her appear peaceful but mysterious, hiding from the men around her what she’s really thinking.
The gallerist at Yuanfen, David Ben Kay, has noted, anecdotally, that about 90% of all men who enter the gallery, immediately recognize it’s an image of a woman’s face and about 90% of the women don’t, even after being told what the image is. David’s theory is that men’s and women’s brains and how they perceive objects are different. David says, “Men are hunters and their brains and eyes are built to discern objects from a distance – as they do when spotting animals through the branches and leaves in a forest when on a hunt. Women, on the other hand, are mothers and their brains and eyes are built to focus on details – as they do when holding an infant to their breast to feed.”
WANG Hailei 王海磊
March 2010
Woman's Face is Secret Language No.1 Part
Woman's Face is Secret Language No.1 Part
Woman's Face is Secret Language No.2 - GUCCI
