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| Girls / 2009-2013 | ||||
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The “Girls” series is referred to by many as the “Falling Down” series. The girls in the photographs and also the girls that have been transformed into animals are all captured from the bottom-up in a “falling-down” mode. My objective is to talk about the ambiguous self-awareness and the singularized value outlook observed in today’s modern life, and also the sense of frustration arising from that. “Frustration” is like a beach ball with different colored sections, and to me, it can be quite sexy. Considering people-related issues, in general, methods that enhance psychological development are adopted in both the East and the West, including religion, psychological counseling, meditation, spiritual formation, lohas, etc. In addition to these, as technological advancement is impacting our lives with a spectacular speed, I think there are many problems that can’t be solved by religion or medicine. This could be observed from the overabundance of religious scams or excessive drug uses that not only are not the solutions being sought after, and instead are inadvertently causing more social problems. Hence, we are bombarded with different social issues on a daily basis. Facebook has become a new platform for social networking, and followers of digital games and virtual world are growing exponentially. People have been staring at their smartphones all the time; when one posts something on his wall, another would immediately press the “Like” button. For quite some time now, I attempt to represent the dynamics of self-awareness in the changing society in my photography. Maybe one should adopt his own standard to examine himself, rather than those set by the media. An unimaginable and outrageous state can be generated by the difference in perspective. Eccentric behaviors may seem ordinary when viewed from different perspectives. The society seems to function in a reasonable manner, and people endeavor to walk down an obscure but a road already well-traveled. Against this backdrop, this solo exhibition is themed on the uniquely subtle culture and emotions of the Taiwanese. Media language abounds in the life of modern people, generating complex and ambivalent emotions. The normal living space contrasts against the overly made-up woman, whose falling down from certain perspectives is beautiful and almost sexy. In modern aesthetics, these old buildings may be considered a failure. Yet at the same time, they are home to us - the place where our heart is. For human beings, besides dealing with the self, one often is helpless when interacting with the outside world in which one belongs. Our bodies seem to be the only thing within our control. In the end,, those of us who live in this day and age need to discover our own confidence in the world of mixed messages and values. As for the materials, I used multi-layered printing process to create layers and three-dimensionality on Dibond, the aluminum composite sheets with a solid polyethylene core. Using these processes and materials to create images blending reality and fabrication, I hope to encourage my audience to suspend their habitual ways of seeing and judgments, as there is no experience that can be relied upon to view this series of images.
Considering the uniqueness of city life--crowded, competitive, complicated and fast-paced were we not psychologically prepared for social change, which might affect our mind more than we can imagine. But how can we prepare ourselves? Maybe we should figure out our own ways? I want to adopt different perspectives to look at things: for example, in “Falling Down,” how can one get hurt when one doesn’t “fall down” on the ground? There is no standard definition for difficulty. The models I chose are friends of mine who have strong and independent modern femininity. When they fell on the glass showing relaxed poses, to me, they seem beautiful from every camera angle. Their full figures and extra meat that displease most women became extraordinarily sexy because of squeezing on the glass. The six pieces of this series feature the six princesses from Disney cartoons, who have been through sleep or fluctuation of life. I believe that it is desirable when calmly dealing with difficulties in life! Modern women are strong and independent; what they need more is to learn “the aesthetics of failure” in life, to appreciate the beauty of falling down.
May, Lan, Zhu, and Ju The models I chose are friends of mine who have strong and independent modern femininity. When they fell on the glass showing relaxed poses, amazingly, they seem beautiful from every camera angle. Speaking of the beauty of femininity, soft lines are often mentioned in art history, in contrast to slim or skinny figures favored by modern society. I attempt to demonstrate and interpret sexiness from a different angle. In addition to the mono-angle of modern media, there are plenty of ways to look at things. Three pieces among the four pieces “May, Lan, Zhu, and Ju” are mentioned here. The background of “May” and “Zhu” is the often seen community complex. The background of “Ju” is a small family room, which is also a metaphor of real space and real life trivia. Haute couture and boutique items are nothing but appearances dominated by mainstream media. A-May A-Lan A-Zhu A-Ju Xiao-Bei Xiao-Dong Xiao-Xi Xiao-Nan Xiao-Bai Xiao-Chun Xiao-Qiu Xiao-Hong Dong-Dong A-Fa
On December 19th, 2011, Untied Nation passed a declaration by making every October 11th “The International Day of the Girl Child.” The Garden of Hope Foundation (GOH) in Taiwan have started organizing activities on women’s value and rights, and far ahead of UN, it had urged the government to pronounce “Girls’ Day” in 2003. Soon after knowing that GOH was promoting “Girls’ Day,” I realized it would be a long journey and decided to donate the money earned from selling the series of “I’m a Girl. Be Proud of Me!” I hope to provide GOH the money needed to establish “Girls’ Day,” and meanwhile I will devote myself to the promotion process. Of course I was wondering the necessity for having “Boys’ Day” or not, since modern society provides the chance for both sexes to communicate and respect each other. Considering the social context of Taiwan, I realized that our tradition has too many restrictions on women and their “devoted” nature, such as, teaching them “ignorance is women’s virtue.” I never deny the importance of traditional morality throughout my own creative process, but I believe that one has to show one’s strength to stand his/her ground. In my generation, roles of both sexes have seriously changed and what I learned from school would soon contradict and conflict with what I have to face in work experience. Women have to be more competitive, reasonable, and confident to express themselves in workspace. We are learning to manage the blurring boundary, to figure out our positions from smashing experiences, and to respect men from different angles. Why do we need “Girls’ Day” in Taiwan? “Girls” indicates the key learning process of every woman, who manages the conflict between tradition and modernity and hence embraces her truth worth. This is not a singular issue, because the contradictions and conflicts that trouble women will also, directly or not, have impacts on men and change the relationship between modern family and society. Erich Fromm also believes that knowing oneself and being oneself is the key to happiness. Only when one can like oneself, he/she can truly respect and care about other people. I believe that the difficulty faced by men is no less than that of women, and women are able to change the situation of sexual inequality of modern society. Hence, through the establishment of “Girls’ Day” in Taiwan, we not only hope that girls start developing their self-esteem and sense of values since adolescence, to recognize and truly embrace themselves, but we also hope that men can encourage women to keep on learning and acknowledge their true worth. We expect to see women capable of independent thinking, rather than blindly following the trend of consumerism from mass media. It will be a long way though. “Girls’ Day” reminds us that we still have so much to do. In the “Girls” series, “I’m a Girl. Be Proud of Me!” is the piece that focuses on self-esteem: women should resist the dominant value system, recognize their own strength and express themselves in order to create their self-esteem, to be free, confident, and respectful and respectable. What I did is to show their confidence in images, from which they freely expressed their dreams, professions, and singularities. I hope they will like themselves the way they were in my images, always enjoying being who they are. The circular composition symbolizes the power that transcends the social environment represented by the background image. Yi-Ting Hung majors in science. She was soft-spoken when describing how she engaged in helping disadvantaged families in remote, rural areas, leading her groups, sharing her experiences, future plans and many others. I believe she has wings that will take her fly around the world. She represents the power of caring. I saw calm confidence from Meng-Chen Wang’s eyes and how happy she was when doing scientific experiments. She believed that research, exploration, and the accumulation of knowledge enrich the world She represents the power of exploration. Yu-Yu Liou is outgoing and passionate. I remember her energetic body languages and shining eyes when talking about her teamwork. She knew her strength in organizing and took advantages in her good communication skills. She represents the power of confidence. Hsu-Fang Tung is good at acrobatics and nanguan (“southern pipes” in Chinese) and the most talkative among them. She has the infectious passion that catches everyone’s attention. However, once when she does acrobatics or plays nanguan, she is concentrated and charming. She had to master ten other musical instruments before graduating from her major in nanguan, and her excellent acrobatic performance is the result of constant practice. She shows us the power of perseverance. Yu-Ting Wu, 18, was the youngest and quietest one. I saw powerful serenity in her eyes. She is good at ikebana and kendo. She described the indescribable happiness when winning the game. She represents the power of excellence. Every move Ping-Ying Lin made was powerful and the years of dance practices left her those beautiful muscular lines. When I clicked the camera, she blossomed like a flower, expressing her effort and perfection for the very minute. She shows us the power of splendor. Jia-Jiuan Tsai played handball, hockey, pipa, and erhu and enjoyed taking adventures. She excitedly shared with me recent pictures of her rock-climbing, in which she put on long skirt, blue and white slippers, and a big backpack on her shoulders when on the top of the rock. I felt nervous about her adventure but her excited eyes convinced me that it was a great one. She represents the power of curiosity. 。 Yu-Chun Chieh knew how to repair cars and was learning aircraft repairing then. When I picked up any random gadget, she could explain its function to me. She seemed determined and had a blueprint for everything. She represents the power of capability. Jhih-Yu Lee likes reading, researching, and writing. She even concentrated on her reading during the break of our shooting. Her reads widely and went abroad for competition after winning the first place of a scientific exhibition. When I asked her questions, she pondered over them and seriously answered the questions. She shows us the power of knowledge. Yun-Yang Wang was good at playing balls and majored in entertainment management. She was eloquent and expressive in terms of her verbal and body languages. She dared to try different things. A brave girl like her was constantly flying. She represents the power of courage. Every girl is beautiful in her own way. Every girl was awarded “Girls’ Award” of GOH for her profession, community participation, or her personal influence on the society. From the ten excellent girls, I saw the splendid power in their eyes, displaying their self-esteem and charms. The power of “caring, exploration, confidence, perseverance, excellence, curiosity, capability, knowledge, and courage” can be seen from each of them. I attempted to capture the moments when I saw the power shining in their eyes and the final circular composition is used to emphasize the power they represent. Let the ten influential girls to represent girls and make us proud of being ourselves. I’m a Girl. Be Proud of me!
City and Home “I know where my home is, but to whom does the city belong?” This is the dialectics between people and social spaces. We live in the colorful city, which is composed by many “homes,” the living spaces of human beings. The city is full of different values, cultures, dynamics, and potentials and therefore it can show its uniqueness. The city has many “homes,” old, new, warm, and changing, each can develop its own story. Compared to the lifeless buildings, the concept of “home” can help us to rethink city and life, provide us a different perspective to look at things, and to cohere people to subvert the world. Facing the separation of social spaces in modern city, I don’t judge this as a negative thing; instead, I treat this as a different way to look at things. Due to the strangeness in the air, the uncertainty and opacity, the city is full of possibilities. Whose city is my home
Traditional “chuang hua” (window flowers) are paper decorations pasted on glass windows. They stand for metaphors of auspicious blessings and our new year’s resolutions. This series of works use window flowers to indicate the very perspective of our seeing through a window that is decorated by us. The decorated window decides the way we look at the world and structures our expectation. The background scenes are the top ten luxury apartment buildings in Taiwan. If I don’t point this out, they might not seem very different from common apartment buildings. Luxury buildings are also homes, however, through boutique items and jewelries, our imaginations or those created by media, these buildings become the so-called luxury apartment buildings. Through the use of superfluous decoration and elegant architecture, a simple abstract image is created. Aside from perspectives, my attempt is to create an abstract composition through a composition of blocks. This convoluted society we live in has the composition of abstract art. The complexity of humanity changes over time, and appears only to be a patch of blurry color when seen from afar. Yet, if one touches it up close, then its level of complexity is revealed. The excitement felt through tactile, visual, and emotional perceptions are all part of life, as well as an integral element to a holistic image. Chuang Hua (Window Flowers)(Set of 10) Girls No.1-5,Boys No.1-5  30x30cm (11 4/5×11 4/5in)/3D,UV Inkjet on Dibond/2012/Limited Edition of 10 +2 A/Ps  30x30cm (11 4/5×11 4/5in)/3D,UV Inkjet on Dibond/2012/Limited Edition of 10 +2 A/Ps  30x30cm (11 4/5×11 4/5in)/3D,UV Inkjet on Dibond/2012/Limited Edition of 10 +2 A/Ps  30x30cm (11 4/5×11 4/5in)/3D,UV Inkjet on Dibond/2012/Limited Edition of 10 +2 A/Ps  30x30cm (11 4/5×11 4/5in)/3D,UV Inkjet on Dibond/2012/Limited Edition of 10 +2 A/Ps
New York New York is a dark city, dirty, noisy, competitive… and so on. Any New Yorker will tell you how much he hates the city and meanwhile he will affirm that he hopes to live here because this is a dynamic city. New York is colorful because of its “people.” It is the kind of colorful that is deeply needed after being crushed in the dark and too cloying. These are the pieces I made during my residency at ISCP in New York. What is the original shape of things? A cake tastes the same after being crushed, and its beautiful color remains. All the changes and difficulties of life have given us our unique shapes and they won’t change the fact of our existence. Erica Sophie, Joanne, and Marianne Mona Lisa
Candy Club Zhao-Di Isabelle Outfit or me  installation / Human hair、C-print/2010  installation / Human hair、C-print/2010  installation / Human hair、C-print/2010  installation / Human hair、C-print/2010  installation / Human hair、C-print/2010 |
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