Twinkling candlelight shines in a window across an open meadow, laughter and music echo as trees whisper together, children sleep soundly in the grass watched by cherubs. This is a place where there is no hum of electricity, or illuminated screens, violence, or pollution, only community and harmoni- ous collaboration with the aid and guidance of the spirit realm.
In her first solo show, Verdant Arcadia, Vivien Ebright Chung wanted to introduce the vocabulary of her work in a richly layered way, with all the joy and silliness laid out with sweeping brush strokes and vibrant color. Drawing on her childhood spent in redwood forests, cow pastures, and piles of seaweed, nature is a character in and of itself in her paintings. One can ask a tree for advice, and should.
The paintings are meant as an antidote to this period of time where many are bearing witness to need- less suffering. These paintings are an offering, a hopeful manifestation for a better world, an ode and sonnet to life. It is not a return to a past, but rather a reimagining of a past that never was, all the good without the bad; things that speak to the higher self, such as friendship, familial love, sensuality, and the sharing of ancient knowledge.
These scenes take place in an imagined future where technology has been thrown over in preference for collectivism and radical community. What is there to stop humanity from living in a heaven on earth except for themselves? The paintings carry in them worlds of hedonistic pleasure, drawing upon familiar images of Rococo splendor but without violence, guilt, or social hierarchy. The colors and marks are put there like a siren’s call, beckoning us to a universe of tranquility.
The show opens at The Trophy Room LA on June 22, 2024.
