MLitt Fine Art Practice School of Fine Art
Feng Lingjun
Feng is a contemporary artist who graduated from the Glasgow School of Art in the United Kingdom. Working primarily with oil paint, acrylic, and coloured pencil, his practice navigates the dynamic interplay between figurative and abstract expression. Rooted in existentialist philosophy, his work focuses on the inherent contradictions between authenticity and inauthenticity, drawing deeply from personal emotion and memory.
In his painting process, “liquid” emerges as a recurring metaphor—symbolizing states of fluidity, ambiguity, and uncontrollability, while also reflecting the reconstruction and reinterpretation of childhood memories and past traumas. By extending and transforming the form and motion of liquid on canvas, Feng constructs an atmosphere suspended between reality and illusion, inviting viewers to perceive the submerged emotions and subconscious currents that lie beneath the surface.
For Feng, painting is both a dialogue with lived experience and a conduit through which individual existence engages with universal existential conditions. His works not only express nuanced psychological states, but also probe the forgotten or ineffable dimensions of the spirit, encouraging viewers to resonate with what they see—and to reflect on what lies beyond.
Series
IMG_5232
Echoes of Memory
The work uses water as a visual guide, a kind of portal into the inner world, gently leading the audience into the depths of memory. Water is fluid, transparent, yet capable of bending and distorting light—just like our recollections of the past: blurry, simplified, and often reconstructed. Human memory is not a faithful recorder, but more of a storyteller, interwoven with emotion, desire, and forgetting.
Cognitive psychology suggests that our brains rewrite memories each time we recall them, reshaping the past to fit present emotions and beliefs. As the philosopher Henri Bergson observed, memory is not a static container but a living experience that flows with consciousness. What we remember is not always what actually happened, but what we are willing—or able—to believe and bear.
Through the metaphor of water, the work seeks to express the fluidity and uncertainty of memory—it resembles images seen between veils of rain or reflections glimmering faintly on a trembling lake. The dampness and elusive nature of water also echo the emotional tension inherent in remembering—those layers of nostalgia, regret, tenderness, and sometimes pain.
As the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “We have art in order not to perish from the truth.” We may not be able to fully restore the past, but through art, we can reinterpret it, perhaps even find reconciliation. Water, as the guide in this piece, not only evokes memory but also symbolizes emotional cleansing and the regeneration of thought.
