The Eye of Alice
Artist Statement
Down the rabbit hole, Alice saw fantasy, mystery, and absurdity.When I was a child, my parents gifted me a huge green leather-backed book of Alice in Wonderland as a Christmas present. The book was beautifully written with exquisite illustrations portraying Alice's absurd and mysterious world. As a child, I was intrigued by the peculiar situations and characters surrounding Alice when she fell into the rabbit hole. Frankly, I was frightened by the abnormalities and pictured Alice’s adventures as a nightmare more than a daydream.
I still see Alice’s Wonderland as a nightmare, but I believe that all her fantasies sprouted from a daydream about her insecurities as a lonely child. Referencing the Lewis Carroll Collection and his job as a photographer, I felt his creative inspiration for storytelling came from the visual images he pictured. Hence, I centered my work on Alice’s eye, seeking Wonderland from her perspective, designed with shards of glass and mirrors reflecting Alice’s golden locks. A thorn bush conceals the eyes of the Cheshire cat and madness as an illusion for her to stumble upon. Broken hearts circle the corner of her eyes, a passionate yet malicious red with a slowly fading blue depicting the fading reality as she immerses in the fictitious world. White roses and her tears are tainted red from the queen of hearts’ tyrannical demands. A few tears crystalize from the emotional coldness of Alice’s heart, and white smoke intertwines with her consciousness to trigger hallucinations. I wanted to depict the derealization of feeling out of reality, weighing Alice as an ignorant intruder or a wondrous adventurer.
I’m grateful for the opportunity to experience Lewis Carroll’s legacy as a child and as an adult. It’s not every day I get to return to a childhood classic and develop my thoughts into an artwork.
