Sunny Geng is a wonderful artist with cerebral palsy who uses it as a strength rather than a weakness to define her art. 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. Words are limited when it comes to unconsciousness, exploring human connections and desires is an endless road, her paintings shows the ‘unfilter-ness’ of shameful feelings. Navigating through the fictional world created by the artist, a safe place that prepare us for the search of a community. Re-identifying objects for a more intimate value and connections. Painting takes her to a different world, allows her to escape the sad truth that she deals with everyday, the discomforts of muscle tension aside; the disappointments towards herself when the limitation of activities and the insecurities in communicating are the things that make her sad.
The protagonist in her paintings is called “circle”, a little spirit who is always confused and wishing for a hug. She created circle to tell the story of a lost child finding a place to call home. This started when she doesn’t feel accepted by the surroundings, a home is not where we were born but where we are wanted.
The protagonist started with just close up portraits, then appeared with a room’s interior, eventually a fictional landscape was created for the character to navigate in. Circle is without hands or legs cause being a cerebral palsy patient she suffers from muscle tension which hinders her control over movements, and she always hoped she could just float so life might be smoother or easier. Creating such a world so she can forget about the hardship of navigating the real world and the inevitability that everyone endures their own fate. Circle became a representation of everyone’s deepest desire and insecurity. In her paintings, the strokes are spontaneous. The intensity and precision varies, depends on her physical condition on the day.
