“I think art really helps you focus on tactile material things, and repetitive motions can be very reflective, at least for me,” said Naomi Leung. "And I find it a way to feel in my own body.”
Leung, a global resource systems and psychology student at UBC, is a mixed media artist. Their work is a tapestry woven with threads of culture, identity and intergenerational narratives, binding the personal to the collective experience and telling a story through delicate, vivid imagery.
For Leung, their art has become a space to centre their own experiences and reflect.
“I’ve been finding [art] helpful for myself to process my own emotions, and my own anger, fatigue and grief through painting, through photography, through self-portraits. And then from there, it really informed my desire to also support other people in experiencing catharsis,” Leung said. “I guess my identity shows up throughout the work.”
For them, art is not merely about aesthetics, but serves to draw personal, meaningful connections. Leung’s creative process is as much about self-discovery as it is about artistic expression. The therapeutic nature of creating and exploring themes of intergenerational loss, eco-grief, hope and healing are subjects that intimately intertwine with their work as the climate wellbeing cohort lead at UBC Sustainability and the UBC Climate Hub.
Leung articulated the symbolism of plant shadows in their work and how it is laden with personal and cultural significance, particularly, the lotus root. Not only does it honour the labour of love that is their grandma’s cooking, but also serves to reflect a tale of migration and sacrifice.
“I was reflecting on the soup and nourishment that my grandma has invested in my life, and what my ancestors have sacrificed to migrate to Canada so that I could get an education and better opportunities,” Leung said.
One of their recent works, When Lotus Roots Grow: biomimicry & biotransformations, explores the themes of memory and heritage.
“I really centred around the idea of lotus roots and how we can learn from the land for solutions and, in turn, to the land for ways we can heal and understand ourselves,” they said.
“Something that was really resonating with me the past summer and the past few months have been plant shadows, and plant shadows on human bodies," said Leung. "In Cantonese culture, it's very common to drink soup together, lotus root soup. So, this piece is called When Lotus Roots Grow."
The project employs cyanotype as a medium, a photographic printing process where a light-reactive chemical solution is painted on watercolour paper and objects are placed on it before being exposed to the sun’s UV rays. The result is a distinct blue imprint, an intricate play of light, shadows and textures that encapsulate photographic imagery.
Leung included pressed flowers from their mom’s garden, rambutan skins, pomelo and mangosteen, among other imagery linking them to their Han roots in the cyanotyping process.
Their characteristic dreamy artistic style is influenced by the “playfulness and possibilities of experimentation through art,” and the practices of Kenyan-American visual artist Wangechi Mutu, while their inspiration to experiment with cyanotyping was drawn from Alternative Process’s Instagram page.
Leung explained the rich imagery and stories behind their expression have an introspective function.
“[My works] centre around the colonial separations of nature versus human, and questioning those binaries and questioning, are we really that separate? And also acknowledging how human supremacy over nature … has been advancing the climate crisis,” Leung said. “Thinking about how to be in reciprocal relations with the land. So many Indigenous land defenders have been saying this for so long.”
Leung’s creative practice is informed by their climate activism, working with the UBC Climate Hub among other groups and having organized for Sustainabiliteens since the age of 16. They also co-founded Climate Education Reform BC, a student-led movement that advocates for climate justice education and works with various school boards.
As the climate wellbeing cohort lead, Leung is involved with the UBC Sustainability Ambassadors Program and has used art to explore the emotions associated with dealing with climate change in that role. For Leung, art and activism are interwoven, and personal reflection aids collective resistance.
“I really enjoy and appreciate facilitating that with other people. With the eco grief, messy hope and healing workshop … we used art as a way to process overwhelming climate emotions like climate anxiety and eco-grief,” they said.
For Leung, art transcends beyond personal introspection, serving as a catalyst to raise awareness for wider societal issues. Leung emphasizes the interconnectedness of the world and encourages the viewer to deconstruct normalized systems of oppression.
“Within my work, I hope to facilitate people to connect with their own desires, unlearn ethnic and racial supremacies, but also unlearn colonial ideologies, unlearn colonial binaries of who we’re supposed to be, and pursue what we actually want,” Leung said.
Through their exhibition at the James Black Gallery, Leung sought to bridge global south experiences with their own, while underscoring the interconnectedness of the challenges faced by lower income, Queer and Trans communities.
“Within my work, I aim to witness the grief, but also centre — what worlds do we want to see, and how do we create them?”
Looking ahead, Leung is further developing their art and expanding their activism. This month, they organized a panel with the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance and the UBC Climate Hub, and moderated the opening panel on transnational solidarities and BIPOC youth perspectives on climate justice and mental health.
“I’ve been dreaming about becoming trained as a clinical psychologist or as a counsellor and … opening a hybrid studio space, and mutual aid-centring space,” Leung said.
“I really want to focus on supporting people to process climate emotions, to prepare for emergency disaster relief but also to highlight global south experiences of climate crises — and also resilience, joy and hope.”
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