Patricia Wanying Lolu

Originally from Venezuela, I explore post-colonial folkloric rituals and archives in our communities (Latinx, Asian and Caribbean) and material culture conservation with technologies. Language, dance and music, all these ancestral knowledge spiritually and culturally embedded with materials tell our history with oppression and maintain our identity. Things that establish a new order and cultural structure for our world, originally from the collective wisdom of our ancestors, are complicated to be expressed in words.

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As an Asian Latin American, Enping-Venezuelan, I was raised in diverse communities which are easily neglected. Growing up in the political conflicts, I develop my approach to art practice from the Americas to Asia and Europe, carrying the tasks of uncovering the distorted past and forwarding it to a wider audience.

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The key to the past is the key to our future. My practice is interdisciplinary – informed by ritual studies, dual heritage, religiosity, anthropology, and ageing ‘crafts’ that were rarely mentioned in the Euroamerican academic system and English-centred art history framework.

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Animation is more than a genre. Animating is to vitalize. My work often engages with immersive techniques such as video mapping installation and projected animation to involve the audience from a new perspective, in which, our sensory and cognitive is universal. Cultural sustainability lies within mutual communication beyond highly detailed urban environment. Observing the world's heritage, I discover that peasants and craftsmen form spiritual solace with supernatural narration, creating new cosmology from vicissitude and historical significance, crafting props with very limited materials, and weaving beliefs passed down through generations with ancient languages and rhythms.

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With this revelation, I explore the intersection of the spiritual world and material culture, bridging between human and the nature world. I aim to create counter-narrative and seek balance and holistic resonance from marginalized stories, which I believe links current subjectivities to the sustainable futures.