Clairelynn Uy

The work is in overall good condition, as is the canvas, which is clear and taut. There is light wear and handling around the edges of the painting, but only visible upon close observation. Examination under ultraviolet light shows no sign of restoration. Framed.
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The central element in As Time Goes By is evidently the image of an animated porcelain pig, superimposed onto the comic-strip-inspired iconography of Roy Lichtenstein. The artist Clairelynn Uy demonstrates her polished technique in the superb control of the oil medium, for the painting resembles a photograph or a magazine cut out upon first glance. The slight sheen on the cool, smooth surface of the porcelain suggests the hardness of material, enticing the viewer to get closer to the painting. Contradiction is a prevailing theme in the artist’s repertoire: she creates an optical illusion by collapsing three-dimensionality with the inherent flatness of the canvas. 

The animal pig is associated with an array of symbols across cultures: the pig is regarded as an emblem of luck, prosperity and wealth in Asian traditions, which is in stark contrast to the attributes of gluttony, greed and grime commonly viewed in the West. Looking out to the world in a curious awe, the porcelain pig is perhaps provoking your stance. Under the larger umbrella of postmodern thoughts, the imagery of a pig becomes a repository of evolving meanings, and functions as a door to the contested discourse of re-presentation. At a time when the concepts of “meaning” and “essence” have been shaken by the rapid transformation of social structures, the artist releases her art from the confines of definitions. Clairelynn therefore rejects the idea of an ‘objective depiction’ and opens her work to the politics and poetics of appropriation and representation.

It is clear that in As Time Goes By, the artist is working in the epistemic gap between a material object and its referent—how the representation of a pig could mean differently to different people.  She is precisely concerned with the constant shift in meanings. The pig in the painting is a representation of the animal pig and by definition a piggy-bank or a toy.  Inserting the porcelain pig on Roy Lichtenstein’s work could be the artist’s way of positioning herself within the avenue of “pop art.” The juxtaposition of unexpected visual elements is an ongoing surprise in her body of works, where viewers are drawn to the entangling of elusive narratives.