Anya Wang

About

Anya Wang (b.1999) is a multi-disciplinary Chinese artist currently based in London and Hangzhou. Her works are profoundly influenced by her Buddhist grandmother and her identity as an Asian woman, which then developed into multifaceted perspectives on psychology and mythology.

Growing up living with her grandmother, Wang was surrounded by diverse mythological sources including Buddhism, Taoism, Shamanism, and other East Asian folklore. Despite religions as cultural influences embedded in her consciousness, Wang was dissociated from its patriarchy and recurring similarities. In response, she began to build her own codex of symbols sampling religious practices and alternative belief systems. This body of work serves as a structural analysis and a critique of symbols, like a mirror and a rejection of the world she is experiencing.

The reason her symbols are chosen varies from collective unconsciousness to her personal life, which creates comfort and belonging for herself and highlights the universally resonant interconnectedness. The selection of objects and animals explores implied metaphors and embodied layers of magic and philosophy, blurring the perceived boundaries between the concrete and intangible, phenomena and materiality.

When presented collectively, Wang’s symbols function as a set of oracle cards. The interplay of sacred animals, daily objects, and artifacts creates dynamic narratives that can shift through adjustments in numbers, colors, and placements. And just like such ancient speculative method of prediction, Wang’s works articulate various concepts that are both poetic and philosophical, as a sort of modern witchcraft, as the gentlest rebellion.