Niwawa- Child Prodigy of Pain

“Niwawa-Child Prodigy of Pain” is an ongoing investigation of a human-like figure named Niwawa that has consistently appeared in my drawings since I was 5 years old, the year I was nearly sold by my biological father due to poverty and gender inequality. I grew up in an impoverished environment and experienced shame and violence directed towards me as a female throughout my life. I believe the psychological pain manifested into different blockages within my body. My work has become a vehicle for transgressing the pain by reimagining healing bodies infused with cosmic fluids traveling from underwater to celestial bodies, from fiery infernos to a colorful floating outer space paradiso. Through acrylic paintings and works on paper, the elements include monstrous figures, winged eggs as flying vessels, black holes, mysterious biomorphic forms, sparkling stars, and otherworldly botanical plant species.

Niwawa's transformation from a victim of neglect and abandonment into a representation of empowerment reflects the potential for healing and liberation.

**Birth of Niwawa**
2023
acrylic, ink, gold glitter on paper
12” x 9”

**The Ugly Truth**
2024
acrylic, ink, gold glitter on canvas
8” x 10”

**Another World**
2024
acrylic and gold glitter on wood
12” x 16”

**Inner Cosmogony**
2024
acrylic, ink and gold glitter on wood
10” x 8”

**The Fate of Female Infants**
2024
acrylic , ink and gold glitter on wood
12” x 12”

**Time Machine Mind and Spaceship Body**
2024
acrylic on canvas
48” x 30”

**The Wounded Healer**
2024
acrylic, ink and gold glitter on wood
11” x 14”

**Cosmic Quest Ritual**
2024
acrylic, ink and gold glitter on wood
12” x 12”

**No Longer Hiding**
2024
acrylic, ink on canvas
16” x 20”

**Nth Room Case**
2024
acrylic, fire, cuts on canvas
16” x 12”

**Dissolving**
2024
acrylic, ink and gold glitter on wood
16” x 20”

**The Journey to Everywhere**
2024
acrylic and ink on wood
10” x 8”

**Nexus**
2024
acrylic, ink and gold glitter on wood
8” x 10”

**The Cosmic Egg**
2023
acrylic, ink, marker, gold glitter on canvas mounted on wood
31.5” x 32.5”

**Hell Courtesan**
2024
acrylic and gold glitter on canvas
72” x 80”

Niwawa’s Diary
2023-2024
ink, pencil, color pencil on paper

About the title:
“Niwawa (泥娃娃)” means clay doll/baby. It comes from a Taiwanese children's song, Niwawa. The song describes Niwawa as a character without a mother or father, unable to blink its eyes nor speak. In my work, Niwawa symbolizes the orphaned child, embodying emotions of loneliness, isolation, shame, guilt, anger, fear, and other suppressed feelings that are deemed inappropriate. It also references the Chinese creation myth of people being made from clay, as well as the Homunculus idea from Alchemy. I borrowed the phrase “Child Prodigy of Pain” from the Taiwanese author Lin Yi-Han’s interview for her book Fang Si-Chi’s First Love. (房思琪的初戀樂園）Note: “Child Prodigy of Pain (痛苦的神童）” originally came from 張亦絢的告別書.