Art meets anatomy
Discovering Catherine Weng’s exploration of the human form
Words by Sammi Wu | Artwork: Catherine Weng
Catherine Weng
Imposed, 2022, textiles, acrylic paint, chicken wire, thread.
Please introduce yourself and the kind of art you create
I’m an emerging artist who grew up in Sydney and moved to Melbourne to study fine art. I currently create paintings and textiles installations that are a hybrid of surreal, realistic and abstract forms. I think my interest in art started with the Chinese drawing/colouring books that my parents bought for my brother and I back when we were younger—although they didn’t actually want us to draw in them for the sake of preserving their originality!
As a kid I spent many gruelling hours at Chinese school and attended the art classes that followed after. I wasn’t very good at Chinese (which is true to this day), and the only thing that I remember from those lessons was drawing Pokemon in class. That’s my first art-related recollection ever, in fact.
Catherine Weng
Isotonic, 2023, oil on wood
What sparked your ‘curiosity of the body’ and how has that influenced the direction of your artwork?
Competitive swimming and athletics were a big part of my adolescence. Being in High School at the time, I think it really helped form a long-standing interest in the body and the way it moves. As I progressed through training, I started researching various muscle groups, how the body functions, etc. and that sparked my interest in the aesthetics of it.
I think I was attracted to the uncomfortable and morbid nature of these things after my first encounter with seeing collections of diseases and decayed organs. It was during a virtual tour of UNSW’s Museum of Human Disease, and I remember immediately feeling a need to reconcile imagery of the external body and internal body together.
Do you find ideological clashes between the work you create and your cultural heritage, if so, how do you overcome them?
Yes—my parents (though they are supportive regardless) come from a background that particularly values traditional and classical beauty. The paintings and sculptures I create of the body feel quite foreign to them, and I think they would have loved for me to paint like the traditional hanging scrolls we have at home. I was pretty lucky that my older brother studied music, also a creative field, so he almost paved the way for me. I think it’d be different if he had a more conventional career path. But I know what type of art I want to make—even though I know they may not like it, that’s not going to change.
Catherine Weng
Solace, 2023, textiles installation.
What are some feelings that you try to evoke or address through your art?
My intention for my installations has always been to create an immersive space that confronts or overwhelms. Some have clear symbolism, like Imposed, where I just want to make viewers overly aware of their bodies while in that space. I’ve also done Solace, which evoked a sense of comfort and safety through the draping of printed vinyl sheets illuminated by natural lighting. My paintings are largely affected by the intuitive way I paint, and this lends itself to crafting a dreamlike, surreal atmosphere. I like to think of it as an escape from reality.
