Dreams of a Solo Traveller

Dreams of a Solo Traveller constitutes a positive rethinking of the Chinese derogatory concept of 剩女(the Leftover Woman). Leftover Women is used to define unmarried, urban, professional single women over the age of 27. In this study, the term is used to describe women who, forsaking conventional expectations of marriage, consciously make alternative choices about their future. The research draws on personal experience and existing literature relating to familial and cultural expectations that many young, contemporary Chinese women must navigate. The discursive relationship between poetry and painting is articulately captured in the Chinese term 诗中有画/画中有诗 ‘painting in poetry and poetry in painting’. 诗中有画 ‘painting in poetry’ refers to the pictorial vividness of a poetic work, and 画中有诗 ‘poetry in painting’, refers to the poetic and aesthetic content of a painting. Poetry and painting here refers to an ancient Chinese practice of combining literary and pictorial form in an intrinsic relationship. The study draws on this relationship to create contemporary design expressions of a social phenomenon. Using silk as a material substrate, the project explores the potentials of poetry, calligraphy, fabric design, illustration and printing to rethink existing conventions of gender expectation and culturally mandated marriage. Formatted on draped, silk ‘sheets’, seven poems created by the researcher update the Chinese principle of ‘painting in poetry and poetry in painting’ as contemporary visual communication design practice. The works are accompanied by a catalogue that provides translations of each poem (into English) and a brief explanation of each work.