Fish Factory

Chengwei Geng (b.1998) is a visual artist based in the UK. She graduated as a Master of Arts in Painting of the RCA, London in 2021. Chengwei is the only child of a Lacanian psychoanalyst mother and a homicide detective father. During her month long stay at the Fish Factory she focussed her attention on documenting moments in time through a number of small paintings from the landscape whilst also exploring the possibilities of ceramics in our workshop.

You can see more from Chengwei from her website and on her Instagram.

Her work focuses on “Fictional Memories”, believing we all subconsciously alternate our memories to our likings or to a certain level which are bearable. “In the end, people are just disappointing.” She always says “We eventually realise we can choose what we remember and that we’ve been doing it all along. It’s not a sin if you want your life a little more romanticised.”

She’s been documenting different moments that touched her whilst here at the residency- either the ocean and mountains that humbled her or the wind that made her cry; she wishes to bring that piece of sentiment back to her love ones far away.

Not only has she been writing poems on how the moon brings our thoughts to the person under the same sky watching the same moon, but also through the abstract expressionism paintings and the ceramics with her fingers’ imprint, her longingness shows. “Imagine standing where I was or the how I sculpt the clay, I look up at the moon every night; wondering if they’ve missed me too.”

You certainly brought some sunshine into our residency Chengwei- we hope to see you again in the future!