Location
Picotte Gallery, Albany, NY
Year
2019
She’s Got a Funny Way of Showing It features sculptural “paintings” that portray scenic glimpses into immigrant mother and first-gen daughter relationships. Utilizing intimate “core-memories” from her own childhood, Lily Wai Brennan pays on homage to her Chinese immigrant mother and the complexities that their bi-culture household carried. The title comes from a slogan she heard often from her non-immigrant father — “Your mom loves you so much. She’s just got a funny way of showing it.”
Lily’s work acts as an intersection between adolescence, tactility, and nostalgia. Her use of primary colors and muted pastels is a callback to childhood memories. The shifts in material texture invite a desire for intimate touch. This execution creates a glimpse into a past the audience will find most familiar to them. Lily strives to trigger moments of personal past reflection for her own audience, as individuals’ perspectives shape the story behind the work.
She’s Got a Funny Way of Showing It features a series of Lily’s work which investigates the deconstruction of the canvas. By stripping the traditional “painting” back to its material roots, the exposed wooden stretcher bar begins to resemble a framed photo. The kinetic “rip” of fabric is captured in time. Here a deconstructed canvas becomes a fragmented memory, capturing the unclarity that remembrance holds.
Over Its Maze, 2019.
McSorry, 2019.
Prolonging a Summer Heat Stroke, 2019 [left]. Cried Over Spilled Strawberry Milk, 2019 [right].
