Artwork Description
Hung Liu – Catchers
Dimensions: 70 x 80″ finished size / 70 x 80″ unframed
Year: 2019
Medium: oil on canvas
One child looks forward, one looks back, insinuating a universe of unknown possibility outside of the painting. Liu presents two youthful figures. A small boy faces back, perhaps representing past history, and though we can’t see his face, we can see what he finds in his limited view: familiarity of home, no matter how uncomfortable. We can’t see what the young girl is looking at. We can see from her facial expression and gestures that whatever she sees or thinks she will encounter in the future, she approaches with confidence and determination. The whole tableau seems like a children’s storybook, with fantastical color in the sky. It’s significant that the land is predictably composed of shades of brown, almost monochromatic; while the sky is like a visual fairy tale of cotton candy colored clouds and sunset. Metaphorically, the land represents the predictable past, while the sky represents all the possibilities of the future.