Paper Cage is an immersive microcosm. Wing’s songs and paper cutting installations depict psychological cages that are confessional like a diary. This particular piece deals with issues of LGBTQ+, self-consciousness, inadequacy, segregation, contemporary anxiety, alienation, trauma, the psyche and memory. Paper Cage is an example of how Wing's installations contain dark and damaging thoughts, and juxtapose them with the status of recognisable and historic symbolism. She detracts from human physicality in her works to create a thoughtful space where words are at the forefront. Essentially you are stepping into someone’s mind, into their experiences and witnessing their reactions to the outside world. It is a conflicting space of romanticism, familiarity, comfort yet deep distress. Paper Cage divides the space up, so that the viewer is aware of barriers, division and being inside and outside of something...
Community is a place where we feel we need to belong. Where age, gender, identity, ethnicity and appearance play a huge part in our everyday views, judgments and interactions. These classifications can be uninformative and extremely limiting. Wing’s works are humane, cathartic and psychosocial, highlighting the influence of history and conventions upon our attitudes and mental health, and the need to break free of these rigid structures, concepts and symbolic expectations to find our own definitions of self worth.
This work is part of The Ingram Collection of Modern British & Contemporary Art and was on loan to the Lightbox for the exhibition "Redressing the balance: Women Artists from The Ingram Collection" (11 August - 20 September 2020).
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Redressing the Balance: Women Artists from The Ingram Collection