Jiannan Wu 吴建楠

"Graduates of year 2020 are a special group. The coronavirus pandemic takes away their commencement ceremonies, graduation exhibitions, and the ritualistic graduation photos. Although the online ceremonies can be held in Zoom, the sense of solemnity and honor cannot be made up. The work Graduation was created in 2019, based on the concept of collective memory to express some specific moments of group and sense of the age and storytelling. However, it now seems more like a desire to be together and graduate as they were. "Graduation" was meant to be exclusive to the specific season each year, and it was the last day for all the students to get together. Even after the outbreak, none of these ceremonies can be remedied or re-done. I hope this work can lead to a rethinking of the collective, of communication and of the present. Although virtual online is the general trend of development, it can never replace people's face-to-face communication and real touch. Getting together is always harder than separation." (Jiannan Wu, 2023)

Jiannan Wu, Feb. News, Destiny is all, Cheers: a visual artist born presenting a total of three artworks: Fab. News a piece that questions the authenticity and bias present in today's relentless news cycle and two mixed media pieces consisting of acrylic on resin, wood, and metal titled Destiny is all, where characters taken from film and tv shows go on the merry-go-round cycle of life and Cheers, a scene from a goliardic dinner party.