15.08 - 03.09.2024
EX-SITU: Art Spaces Residency at Singapore Art Museum
with Tenthaus art collective
I am presenting three interconnected ongoing projects: As the Crow Flies, Family Album, and I Was Trying to Find Traces of You.
As a Taiwanese artist based in Oslo, migration has always been a central theme in my work, reflecting the emotional journey and subtle transformations in how we define a place. While deeply rooted in personal experience, my work also shares a broader narrative of moving, migrating, and navigating between borders and different realities.
Research on Family Album
Through the images I've taken, I’ve noticed a strong focus on the empty, personal spaces of my mother, grandmothers, and myself. It’s particularly difficult for them to have personal space; sometimes it seems confined to a small desk where they feel most at ease. Although they own the entire house, their true personal space, to me, is limited to that small, comforting area.
I am presenting my material research in Singapore, where I navigate a "third space" between Norway and Taiwan. In this research, I’m searching for the “same same but different” in my surroundings, trying to find similar patterns in the textiles and textures in the photographs I took in my homes in Taiwan. These might be seen as unsuccessful attempts, but they still speak to me in some ways.
As the Crow Flies As the Crow Flies originated from my brief return to Taiwan in 2022 after living in Norway for several years. The project documents the temporarily unfamiliar landscapes of my once-familiar homeland and includes a series of postcard exchanges with my mother, who has never visited Norway. Through these exchanges, we shared our daily landscapes, foods, and the people who connect us, reflecting on themes of relocation, shifting values, and evolving relationships between objects and memories. As the Crow Flies is about distance and the subtle indifference within a significant contrast.
I Was Trying to Find Traces of You
As part of As the Crow Flies, this series was captured during the week between my grandmother's admission to the ICU and her passing. I was desperately trying to find traces of her. These photos are far from perfect by any standard definition—they're riddled with mistakes: underexposure, incorrect ISO settings, the wrong film, and slow shutter speeds. But these imperfections reflect my mental state at the time. I couldn’t document things properly; within my less-than-intuitive photography skills, these were the few clues I tried to hold onto before they completely disappeared.
As a Taiwanese artist based in Oslo, migration has always been a central theme in my work, reflecting the emotional journey and subtle transformations in how we define a place. While deeply rooted in personal experience, my work also shares a broader narrative of moving, migrating, and navigating between borders and different realities.
Research on Family Album
Through the images I've taken, I’ve noticed a strong focus on the empty, personal spaces of my mother, grandmothers, and myself. It’s particularly difficult for them to have personal space; sometimes it seems confined to a small desk where they feel most at ease. Although they own the entire house, their true personal space, to me, is limited to that small, comforting area.
I am presenting my material research in Singapore, where I navigate a "third space" between Norway and Taiwan. In this research, I’m searching for the “same same but different” in my surroundings, trying to find similar patterns in the textiles and textures in the photographs I took in my homes in Taiwan. These might be seen as unsuccessful attempts, but they still speak to me in some ways.
As the Crow Flies As the Crow Flies originated from my brief return to Taiwan in 2022 after living in Norway for several years. The project documents the temporarily unfamiliar landscapes of my once-familiar homeland and includes a series of postcard exchanges with my mother, who has never visited Norway. Through these exchanges, we shared our daily landscapes, foods, and the people who connect us, reflecting on themes of relocation, shifting values, and evolving relationships between objects and memories. As the Crow Flies is about distance and the subtle indifference within a significant contrast.
I Was Trying to Find Traces of You
As part of As the Crow Flies, this series was captured during the week between my grandmother's admission to the ICU and her passing. I was desperately trying to find traces of her. These photos are far from perfect by any standard definition—they're riddled with mistakes: underexposure, incorrect ISO settings, the wrong film, and slow shutter speeds. But these imperfections reflect my mental state at the time. I couldn’t document things properly; within my less-than-intuitive photography skills, these were the few clues I tried to hold onto before they completely disappeared.
Photograph Documentation from 2024.08.31 (Sat.) SAM Residencies: Open Tent/House with Tenthaus