Page 19 - Child Art Magazine Transformative Experiences

2003WCF

Victoria Yin

Art as Fame

that might end up on someone’s wall if lucky. Fine art as
a practice is detached, useless, unfit, pretentious, and
maybe even boring for an increasingly fast-paced, short-
attention spanned consumer cultures and communities.
In addition, continuous new challenges to the infamous
‘what is art’ question and what seems an increasing
subjectivity in the appreciation of art have watered down
the contemporary public’s respect for and interest in the
artistic practice and its practitioners. As such, the result is
I am humbled and blessed little attention given to fine art in communities as well as
to have been sharing limited encouragement and even doubt or scorn directed
my creative work with a towards children and youth practicing or pursuing fine art
worldwide community for because of its unpromising, impractical future.
a decade. In the future, I
hope to further cultivate This shadow of practicality and societal judgment is
the themes in my work, something that not only I, but majority of practicing
communicate with an even artists, young, aspiring, or professional alike, must
wider audience, and shed acknowledge and bear today.
light on the depth and significance of artistic practice in
contemporary society. Even though it was years ago, I remember going to
DC [for the ICAF festival] and being in such a global
In the past I have worked primarily with surrealistic motifs. community and getting to interact with a lot of young
A lot of themes I have covered have to do with human artists who were united in the name of creativity and
civilization and where we human beings are headed in the peace was definitely an experience of a lifetime. I
future. I am really interested in seeing where humans and came to realize that art is a versatile medium and a very
machines meet. I don’t like to define a style I am working empathetic medium and being in that diverse community
in because I feel I am always evolving and should be has in a sense spurred me forward and introduced me
evolving and definition is a restriction in a way. to the potential of what I could possibly do with my own
artwork. The spirit of the event is something I have worked
Perhaps surprisingly yet not at all that unsurprisingly, I find to and am still working to spread through my artwork
that the person who’s challenged and stimulated me most and establishment of the Victoria and Zoe Yin Global
intellectually and creatively over the years is my younger Foundation for Children’s Arts with my younger sister.
sister, Zoe [also a child prodigy attending the Phillips
Academy Andover]. There is no one more familiar with Once a child prodigy in the arts, Victoria Yin is on her way
and more willing to test and dispute my ideas than her. to becoming an acclaimed artist. Winner of the 2nd Arts
Olympiad from Massachusetts at the age of 8, Victoria
The most significant challenge I’ve come against in my participated in the 2nd World Children’s Festival in 2003. The
years as an artist is probably that the fine artist’s role ChildArt magazine’s July-September 2005 issue featured
seems to be growing abstruse in contemporary society. her as spotlight artist. As a nine year old, she wrote that
Unlike the accountant, the engineer, the doctor, etc., “through art, I learn to understand our knowledge of form,
whose roles and places in the world are more readily the science of color, and the harmony between man and
definable and acknowledged by the masses, the fine artist manmade.” She is currently a junior at Brown University,
appears good for nothing more than producing pictures with a double major in fine arts and literary arts.

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