2018-2019 Yu-Wen Wu, Leavings/Belongings

Yu-Wen Wu is a Boston-based interdisciplinary artist. Born in Taipei, Wu came to the United States at the age of seven. Her work is informed by this bicultural upbringing—the eastern and western influences in life and art.

Wu’s current work explores the issues of Displacement, Assimilation and Individual and National Identity. Through video, installation, drawing and sculpture she challenges our impressions of accuracy and storytelling. Compositing imagery, she draws together the natural world and social movement, on both a personal and global scale. She approached her own experiences of immigration and other culturally specific happenings by presenting them as a series of inevitable occurrences. 

She is the recipient of numerous awards, exhibiting museums and galleries nationally and internationally, and in many public and private collections.

While in residency at Pao Arts Center, Wu continued her work on Leavings/Belongings. Inspired by the tradition of storytelling while making, the project engaged participants from various public, immigrant and refugee communities in the making of symbolic “bundles.” These anomalously-shaped, cloth-wrapped bundles may represent what is left behind, and what may be carried in migration—survival, hope, dreams. Through the act of making together, participants shared their family’s and their own immigration journeys, generating dialogue that bridge across experiences, generations, and ethnicity. Throughout the project, Wu recorded these narratives, photographing the participants and their bundles. This project culminated in a multimedia installation at Pao Arts Center and other public spaces.