Passing Through (2018) conveys how art can help the implementation and shaping of human rights during political disputes. World War Two ravaged the world and while it officially ended in...
Passing Through (2018) conveys how art can help the implementation and shaping of human rights during political disputes. World War Two ravaged the world and while it officially ended in 1945, its long term effects can still be seen and felt even today. Not only are there physical and permanent scars etched on the survivors as a badge of their bravery and as a constant reminder of the pain they suffered, there are also irreversible emotional damage and remnants of hatred directed towards opposite sides. For Pryde, the War affected her perspective as she was born right after it ended. The impoverished circumstances she was brought up in and her family’s damaged psyche were all ramifications of the War. Pryde attempts to reconcile her traumatised feelings about the War through creat-ing Passing Through (2018). Each of the panels in her work depicts a location that Pryde finds especially memorable in her visit to Japan in 2017.
Pryde invites us to interpret the painting from right to left. She brings our attention first to a towering, decrepit architecture in the lower right hand corner of the painting. It is the Genbaku Dome, previously an exhibition hall that was damaged by the atomic bomb. It is now used as a peace memorial to commemorate the victims who were killed in the terrifying bombing of Hiroshima dur-ing World War Two. Upon visiting the Memorial, Pryde felt a resounding despair and cried for the those who died and suffered. However, given the circumstances of her childhood that was torn apart by the aftereffects of Japan's occupation in Hong Kong and her knowledge of Japan soldiers’ terrible abuse of Hong Kong citizens, she felt conflicted and a certain amount of shame for feeling sympathetic to the Japanese and for betraying the hearts of those she share a home with. By putting the printed collage of the Hiro-shima Peace Memorial at the bottom of the artwork, Pryde seemingly tells us how deeply the visit had affected her emotionally and how low her heart had sunk because of it. However, at the same time, she was also inspired by a long-time Japanese friend who guid-ed her visit to the Memorial: that we should learn to forgive and forget, to put down our hatred in realisation of a peaceful interna-tional community that loves and supports each other.
Motivated by such a positive influence, Pryde portrays other Japanese scenic locations as well to convey her admiration and appre-ciation of Japanese culture and its people in the other four panels: quaint, traditional Japanese brown houses, blooming sakura and cherry blossom trees, the Itsukushima Shrine that is teeming with tourists during low tides, and the obliterating waterfall thundering from the top of the hills. The gentle and soothing ambience and the “slow living” mentality of the Japanese are what attracted Pryde to this very place.
Pryde deliberately places her Itsukushima Shrine collage in the middle of its panel, between the ink-painted sky and sea. This is because the Shrine is best known for its dramatic “floating” torii gate, which is located on the outskirts of an island of Hatsukaichi. Pryde captures the Shrine during low tide, the only time it is accessible for tourists to approach by foot. This piece of architecture located neither on land nor in the sea is what brings tourists from around the world together. Pryde conveys her strong belief that nature has the capability and power to bind people from different backgrounds of race, wealth, gender and age together to wonder upon and appreciate its beauty. This harkens back to the central message of Passing Through (2018): that human beings all experi-ence various degrees of pain and oppression in life and that there is no need for us to compare our sufferings or to hold onto our feelings of resentment with each other. We should all learn from nature, which is all-encompassing and tolerating, and to embrace each other’s differences in harmony.