Rachel Yan Gu

Lives and works in Urbana, IL, USA

Artist statement

Artistic creation aimed at exploring personal emotions is what I call Emotional Creation. There is an inseparable relationship between artistic creation and brain activity. Medically speaking, Kolk (2015) explains that "the only way we can consciously access the emotional brain is through self-awareness, i.e. by activating the medial prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that notices what is going on inside us and thus allows us to feel what we’re feeling" (p. 208) . Artistic creation can serve as a means of exploring emotions because its most direct effect is to create a sense of "otherness" that departs from reality, which is generated by the fantasy elements in the artwork, such as objects, actions, statements, melodies, etc. (Langer, 1986, p. 55). Through the artist's creative process, their prefrontal cortex, as the physiological basis for the most complex mental activities, can analyze the world through the artist's actions, that is, the creative processes. Even though many emotions are subtle and difficult to clearly perceive, and in many cases, some "uncomfortable sensations may keep the body frozen and the mind shut" (Kolk, 2015, p. 210), the artist can use artistic creation to provide and maintain a basic level of fantasy, temporarily detaching their mental world from the surrounding reality (Langer, 1986, p. 80). Through the analysis of expressive forms within artistic fantasies, the brain aligns with emotions, achieving a unity of art, body, and feelings....

Artwork