On a journey of play, artist Szu-Chieh Yun guides students to a path from fear
'They imagined their own forest and they saw something in their mind and brought it into the real world' by making art out of it, she said. 'A way to overcome fear is to make room to imagine a pathway forward. Just like they did in this project.'
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'Into the Forest' is on view at the MFA through Oct. 26.
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Community Arts Initiative "Into The Forest" is Szu-Chieh Yun's exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Where to find her
: www.szuyun.com/
Age
: 36
Originally from
: Yun immigrated with her family from Taiwan to Boston when she was 9.
Lives in
: East Boston
Making a living
: The artist/teacher is an adjunct professor at Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Painter Szu-Chieh Yun at a table where she does bead work in her East Boston studio.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Studio
: Yun calls the studio in her live/work space in East Boston 'a cubicle.' Her tasks there are small-scale. 'I stretch my canvases there,' she said. For more ambitious projects, she makes use of her access to facilities at MassArt.
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How she started
: When she was a student at
Paint tests on the wall at Szu-Chieh Yun's East Boston studio.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
More recently, the pandemic jumpstarted her art. Shortly before lockdown, Yun returned to Boston from Shanghai, where she taught elementary school art.
'I couldn't really apply for a job,' she said. 'My instinct was: You actually need to paint. This is what you
need
to do.'
What she makes
: 'Rage & Ecstasy,' the painting series she began during COVID, explores the
'I imagine myself as Karen and I'm caught on camera in this rage moment in public spaces,' Yun said. 'They were very emotionally taxing. I grew a lot of white hair.'
Beadwork by artist Szu-Chieh Yun at her East Boston studio.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
The ecstasy followed. 'I started beading,' the artist said. 'It almost has a spiritual quality. It feels like drawing — the lines of these threads pull all these different pieces together.'
Now, she sews glittering beaded pieces into her paintings. Her 'Rage & Ecstasy' exhibition opens at Simmons University's Trustman Art Gallery in September.
How she works:
'With my hands first, and then I allow this personal journey through that,' Yun said. 'I respond to my environment and my experiences. I think deeply. I have to create from that.'
Advice for artists
: 'The reason why they're on this journey is to play,' Yun said. 'Let that lead them to the next thing.'
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An untitled work by artist Szu-Cheh Yun, made of charcoal, coal slag, glass beads, and acrylic paint, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
COMMUNITY ARTS INITIATIVE: INTO THE FOREST
At Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., through Oct. 26.
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