Peihang Benoit

Lives and works in Paris, France

Artist statement

How does painting reflect the sense of displacement of time and contemporary life? How can it reflect a general human condition? Drawing from personal experiences of constant moving, such environmental change and the incompatibility, and how one finds an anchor in a foreign place and culture becomes the center of my focus. I take inspirations from archives from the past and compare to the present, and search for a link that connects the life of the contemporary. My recent work (since 2022) is provoked by the distorted experience of time and space of early stage motherhood and during confinement, which reflects our collective experience over the past three years due to the pandemic. I explore the sense of space through objects and movements from everyday life and domestic environments, aiming to find a portal that can transcend our thoughts beyond time and space, and to somewhere unlimited. I gather source material of my own traveling from different places at different times, and allow the contour of interior to serve as a gateway to another world. The contour in each composition alludes to what is happening in the interior, hinting at the narrative of a very closed life scene. Yet, through the interplay of replaced alter scenes and the movement of brushstrokes, I discover a profound sense of liberation. In the realm of painting, I am granted the ability to inhabit multiple places simultaneously, as well as summon the past to the present. While my physical being remains...

Artwork