Biography
Making art is a transmigration of my ideas, and thus my spirit, into the physical world. As an artist migrating from China to North America, both my identity and my sculpture pass through the complex filters of different countries, languages, and cultural expectations. I filter Chinese thoughts through English words, English words through Chinese culture, and my psyche through artwork.
In my art, every idea travels through the intricate passageway of how I think in Chinese but speak in English. Choosing the right material for my work is like choosing the right word in my vocabulary. For Guan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion, I applied the red threads used to make tassels for Chinese lanterns to a statue I had cast of her, and then, even though she was touching the floor, I suspended her by a wire to show how, in my adopted culture, I am suspended between what I used to be and what I am becoming.
In an effort to shape myself, I take traditional Chinese materials and techniques and reinvent them within a Western aesthetic and presentation. In the series, Flux, I use the reeds and red tissue paper of Chinese lantern making to mold the fragile cocoons of an immigrant life—where staying safe and protected within an unfamiliar, often intimidating cultural environment is essential to emerging and adapting with a reincarnated identity.
I use the minimalist concepts and theatricality of my work to expose the intricate layers of my internal world where Chinese culture, training and traditions inspire my work so I can build a bridge of survival, safety and adaptation to the foreign land that molds and informs my work.
