Reframing the Looking-Glass: Aisha Rosli & Xu Yang

Cuturi Gallery is proud to present a duo exhibition, Reframing the Looking-Glass, by Aisha Rosli and Xu Yang. With the title adapted from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, the exhibition features local Singaporean artist, Rosli and London based Chinese artist, Xu, who reframe the looking glass to fashion their respective fantasies, each built upon their individual realities and personal histories.

The figurative paintings of Aisha Rosli are carefully constructed fantasies, each a projection of the artist’s mindscapes onto canvas through the use of confined spaces and anxiety-ridden bodies. The women, imprisoned by fear, take the form of distorted bodies where these exaggerated limbs become sites of psychological trauma. The feeling of anxiety is further enforced by their warped surroundings, where checkered floors and patterned wallpaper turn fluid, engulfing Rosli’s characters in waves of panic and discomfort. The women struggle to keep balance as they navigate daunting situations paved by uneven floors and decaying walls.

We peer into the dark rooms of Rosli’s light washes of greens and reds which hold bruised translucent bodies of struggling women. The artist situates her subjects with the intention to evoke anxiety and fear within her audience. This is seen in Drowning in Denial (2021), where a woman is placed clinging onto the corner of a round table, her arms distorting as they press into the glass sheet while her crooked fingers fail to find grip on the smooth surface. Lit candles sit on the edge of a separate table mirroring the woman’s plight as it melts onto the fabric. 

The woman will need to let go and absorb the risk of hurting herself in order to blow out the candles to avoid the room being engulfed in flames. These ways of escape are present in Rosli’s constructed prisons, but the characters choose to remain trapped, unable to make the decision. It is this choice to exist within the twisted familiar, than to face the unavoidable reality that is awaiting them, that creates the tension within Rosli’s paintings.

We enter the fantasy of Xu Yang, a vividly-coloured warped mirror to that of Rosli’s, which manifests as elaborate stages of composed elements from her childhood as well as art history. They become a response to her personal history growing up in China, where self expression was controlled and monitored. Migrating to the UK to study Fine Arts at the age of 18, the artist found solace in the London drag community which encouraged and celebrated self expression. 

Xu Yang, inspired by 18th century Rococo style paintings which featured women with stacked wigs and corsets to enhance their femininity, viewed this painting style as a form of drag. Freedom of expression takes the form of constructed identities, pink unicorns and lavish dresses in Xu Yang’s paintings as a way to reposition women’s bodies away from the male gaze and to challenge and rattle the social order. Through embracing her fantasy, Xu provokes her audience to question the position of women in society today. 

Bodies are rendered faceless through the reflections of old worn out mirrors and the use of masks. This erasure becomes a way to deliberately strip these women of their identities. These blurred faces are regular inhabitants of Xu’s paintings. They allow for self reflection by inviting the audience to project themselves as well as their personal experiences onto these intimate works. This opens up the possibilities that come with reimagining the present world we live in along with the places we hold in it.

Red velvet curtains drape over mirrors, coat floors, and envelop Xu Yang’s subjects. The artist embraces the red pigment which is known to symbolise power, masculinity and success to touch on feminist topics. Exquisite mirrors lined with golden frames are recurring objects in Xu Yang’s paintings and are used to create fictional spaces that capture and emulate the fantasies that exist within each of us. Locks of golden hair and fabric from pink dresses spill out from within the golden frames onto checkered floors breaking the divide between fantasy and reality. 

Historically charged symbols of masculinity are repositioned and re-contextualised in Xu Yang’s paintings, transforming them into symbols of women empowerment to provoke a feminist discourse. This is seen in Taking Control (2021) where the swan, a strong reference to Zeus who is known for his abuse in mythology, is removed from its usual dominating position and is rendered motionless in the arms of a woman as she takes back the power and control.

A doll sits on the edge of the table leaning against a bouquet of roses in Peacock, Roses, Mirror and Doll (2021). It becomes a personal symbol and link to Xu Yang’s childhood, a nostalgic reminder of simpler times. The doll is reflected in the looking glass to reveal a silhouette of a woman in the distance. This dream of one day becoming the Rococo doll is realised through the mirror but she is unfocused and blurred which reinforces that this is nothing more than an illusion, a projection of a future that has not been realised.

Xu Yang and Aisha Rosli both draw from within, bravely exposing their personal histories through these carefully constructed warped versions of their realities. The two artists reposition the female body away from the male gaze in order to touch on contemporary issues faced in society today.

Born in Singapore, Rosli graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) with a Diploma in Fine Art (Western Painting) in 2018. Following her sold out solo exhibition, Black Eye, with Cuturi Gallery in  January 2021, Rosli has taken part in the OH! Open House in conjunction with Singapore Art Week along with several group exhibitions in Cuturi Gallery, Singapore. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at Sangkring Art Space, Yogyakarta (2018), Coda Culture, Singapore (2019), Unit London, London (2020), and Art Agenda, Singapore (2021). 

Xu Yang (b. 1996, Shandong, China) lives and works in the U.K. Vice Chairman of UK- China Photography Association. She holds a First Class Honours BA in Painting from Wimbledon College of Arts and is currently attending an MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art (2018-2020). She was the winner of the ArtWork Open (2019) and she has been Highly Commended in the Air Gallery Open (2019). Xu Yang was shortlisted for the Clyde & Co Art Award (2018), and nominated for many prizes, including Contemporary Young Artist (2020) and The Signature Art Prize (2019), Whitechapel Gallery First Thursday University Competition and the Olympus UAL Photography Award. Xu has contributed to the collaborative art projects ‘Imaging Technologies’ with Painting Research of Wimbledon College of Arts (exhibited at the Tate Modern in 2017) and ’Here she Comes’ with Monster Chetwynd (performed at the Royal Festival Hall in 2016).

Text by Kara Inez

 Exhibition Catalogue