A mile or more of hand-dyed, waxed thread, perhaps an acre of silkscreened, printed, and dyed silk organza and other fabrics, hundreds of bells, rusted razor blades, brain scans on magnetized rubber disks, small round candle mirrors, miniature Buddhas, the Heart Sutra, and a myriad of other symbolic objects mark the artistic journey traveled by Jan-Ru Wan as she searches for ways to express the essential elements of the human experience. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Wan has spent the past 19 years in America, discovering how to suspend matter in space so that her sculptural installations embody both at once. The two domains are locked in an interdependent embrace balanced by the laws of physics and the aesthetic of the sublime so that Wan can explore and express what she understands about herself and what she considers to be the true nature of being. …see the entire article in the print version of September’s Sculpture magazine.
