Yuan Gun Gun explores the female experience in black and white

Yuan Gun Gun’s graceful figures, vast landscapes, lush and intricate vegetation, and faces staring eye to eye, all hand-drawn in black and white, stand out for their breadth and vividness. Drawing by hand is a painstaking process, but it lets Yuan, who calls herself a mixed-media creator, “use the ‘authenticity’ of the materials to give full expression to the distinctive qualities of the medium.”

元滚滚所有的作品都是手绘的：窈窕的身体、对望的眼睛、绵延的山河、细致到繁复的树叶枝桠，在黑白构建的平面世界里，显得异常生动与广阔。手绘的过程来得慢，但元滚滚却很喜欢这个过程，她对自己的定义是“综合材料创作人”，因为“运用材料所带来的‘真实感’去创作，可以发挥媒介本身的特质。”

This authenticity is also apparent in her subject matter. “Women are definitely my main subjects,” says Yuan. “As a woman myself, I want to convey contemporary anxieties about women’s identity and the challenges of growing up.” Most of her drawings are based on her own emotions and are closely related to her individual experience. “My whole process of maturation took a slightly more meandering route than most kids. At college I changed majors, went on leave, and traveled around the country, and since graduating I haven’t really had a job. My choices are entirely different from those of my peers. Because things have never been easy, art has naturally been a channel for releasing emotions and expressing myself.”

一样呈现着“真实”的，是她笔下画的主题。“女性一定是我画里面的主角。”元滚滚说，“因为我自己本身是女性，所以会想要表达当代情境下的女性身份焦虑和成长的困境。”大部分的画面，都来自于她自身的情绪和感受，和自己的个人经历紧密相关。“我的整个成长过程相对大多数孩子要波折一些，我大学里转过专业、休过学、全国旅行过，毕业之后也没怎么上过班，跟同龄人的选择完全不一样，因为一直都不顺利，所以非常自然地，创作是我一个比较好释放情绪、可以表达自我的途径。”

And now her desire to speak out as a woman is a source of motivation. “Since I was little, I’ve been subject to all kinds of stereotypes, such as the idea that women can’t study science, or that a good husband is better than a good job,” she says. “And by your early twenties, you start getting pressure to get married. At the same time, I’ve noticed there are still a lot of women and men who have no sense of this.”

This is no way live, in Yuan’s view. People should fight for the life they want—and perhaps women most of all.

而现在，元滚滚创作的一部分动力，还来自于为女性发声。“我从小到大都经受过各种刻板印象，比如女生学理科就是不行、干得好不如嫁得好，二十出头就开始被催婚逼婚等等。同时，我还发现还有很多女性男性对此并无感知。”

元滚滚坚定地认为不应该这么活，人应该努力争取自己想要的生活——或许，尤其是女人。

Yuan has now gathered her new charcoal drawings into a series titled Burning Question. “What I want to explore are the most important issues I faced growing up, because they troubled me for many years.” These questions aren’t limited to two-dimensional drawings—she also has several sculptures and 3-D virtual digital creations. “I want more women to freely make their own choices, so in the future, I’m going to make more art about women’s topics,” she explains. “I wouldn’t say I want to influence women, but rather that I hope others won’t take such a circuitous path—even though sometimes circuitous paths are necessary.”

现在，元滚滚把新的炭笔画算作一个系列，叫做《Burning Question》。“中文意思是非常紧要和重要的问题，想要探讨的就是我自己的成长中最重要的问题，因为我过去很多年一直卡在其中。”这并不局限在平面插画里，还有很多石雕雕塑或者 3D 虚拟的数字创作等等。“我还是希望更多的女孩能自由做她们自己的选择，所以我之后会创作更多女性话题的创作。说不上想要影响其他女性，更多只是希望他人少走一些弯路吧（虽然有时弯路也是必经之路）。”她说。