Part of From Far Away (Ongoing)
* From Far Away is a series of process-based works, adaptable to different contexts with varied selections from the series.
I Was Trying to Find Traces of You
2024
Acrylic medium, inkjet print pigment, magnets and plexiglass
Various size
This series is about loss and what happened after.
This series of images were taken earlier this year, during the week between my maternal grandmother's admission to the ICU and her passing. Having only seen her briefly in the three years since her colon cancer diagnosis, I found myself desperately searching for traces of her, realizing I had been absent through her illness and present only at its end.
These photos are far from perfect by any standard—they're riddled with mistakes, a collection of failures: underexposure, incorrect ISO settings, the wrong film, and slow shutter speeds. However, these imperfections mirror my mental state at that time. I struggled to document the moment properly; with my less-than-intuitive photography skills, these images became the few clues I clung to before everything slipped away.
Alongside these flawed images are other glimpses of her life: a piled of hats, marking her hair loss from chemotherapy; a basin with a toothbrush, prepared for her journey in the afterlife, as is tradition in Taiwan; her dressing table, half-emptied, with a few of her belongings left behind.
Probably it is more than loss —it captures the raw experience of navigating between worlds as a migrant and granddaughter, pulled between where I’m building my life and where my roots remain. While deeply personal, it resonates with the broader migrant experience.
Created with a self-developed technique, these images are transferred onto layers of dried paint, becoming fragmented and distorted—like memories themselves. Mounted on custom-made plexiglass strips, these pieces aren’t just images; they’re tactile objects, embodying the fleeting, untouchable nature of memory.
* This work was exhibited at Oslo Negativ 2024, Den gamle Veterinærhøgskolen, Oslo.
* From Far Away is a series of process-based works, adaptable to different contexts with varied selections from the series.
I Was Trying to Find Traces of You
2024
Acrylic medium, inkjet print pigment, magnets and plexiglass
Various size
This series is about loss and what happened after.
This series of images were taken earlier this year, during the week between my maternal grandmother's admission to the ICU and her passing. Having only seen her briefly in the three years since her colon cancer diagnosis, I found myself desperately searching for traces of her, realizing I had been absent through her illness and present only at its end.
These photos are far from perfect by any standard—they're riddled with mistakes, a collection of failures: underexposure, incorrect ISO settings, the wrong film, and slow shutter speeds. However, these imperfections mirror my mental state at that time. I struggled to document the moment properly; with my less-than-intuitive photography skills, these images became the few clues I clung to before everything slipped away.
Alongside these flawed images are other glimpses of her life: a piled of hats, marking her hair loss from chemotherapy; a basin with a toothbrush, prepared for her journey in the afterlife, as is tradition in Taiwan; her dressing table, half-emptied, with a few of her belongings left behind.
Probably it is more than loss —it captures the raw experience of navigating between worlds as a migrant and granddaughter, pulled between where I’m building my life and where my roots remain. While deeply personal, it resonates with the broader migrant experience.
Created with a self-developed technique, these images are transferred onto layers of dried paint, becoming fragmented and distorted—like memories themselves. Mounted on custom-made plexiglass strips, these pieces aren’t just images; they’re tactile objects, embodying the fleeting, untouchable nature of memory.
* This work was exhibited at Oslo Negativ 2024, Den gamle Veterinærhøgskolen, Oslo.
