The Newborn Old, 2020

An interview with this young Asian American, but old Chinese. I attempt to uncover the untold history of female Chinese immigrant, while exploring her identity as being both traditional and Chinese, and her adaption to her new identity.

Happy Spinning Rabbit, 2018

A playful display of loneliness, awkwardness and absurdity inside this battery operated animal toy.

Playfulness in my art is interpreted more as a childish experiment rather than mature pursuit of knowledge or methodology. Responding to the yearning to return to the childhood, playfulness offers the capacity to escape from the reality and enter the imagination of recreating the past.

Frog Says, 2017

"It is easier to imagine the end of world than to imagine the end of Capitalism."

I Wanna Dance Dance Dance, 2017

The work “‘I Wanna Dance Dance Dance” focuses on a nostalgic object, a toy found in Chinatown. The toy is a small, handful robot. It is infused with a cheap, weird aesthetic: the tentacles are painted in vibrant colors: yellow, blue, red and green; the plastic head is transparent, with several light bulbs inserted inside its head. When the switch is turned on, it spins, projects bright neon lights from its top, with an undistinguished song playing in strident voice. It is meant to bring out curiosity of children, but it does not allow any interaction but watching. At the first glance, the strident noise and neon light can catch attention. Soon, the patience is eroded. The toy evokes sensory overload, exhaustion and even horror.

Chapter 1: Shanghai, 2016

It is based on an actual footage appropriated from an old documentary called “Bits of China”, by Cine Art Production, which contains glimpses of Hong Kong, Macau, Canton and Shanghai in 1935. The chosen scene is appropriated from a footage of a busy street scene, in which people in different social classes have intersections. By drawing circus costumes on top of the black and white figures, their unawareness of the political and existential crisis they are going to endure are pointed out.

Laoma Tihua, 2016

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese Contemporary Artist and best known for his political activities against Chinese government. He has been highly and openly critical of Chinese government’s stance of democracy. In Western culture, he is deemed as an icon of liberation and human rights. Hence, his works, mostly sculptures and videos, are automatically specified and delimited to the political purpose. But, is there anyway to make Ai Weiwei’s pieces less political, or not political? 

Soundscape, 2016

I recorded sound from 12th Ave. to 1st Ave in Manhattan in a direct route to create a sound-scape. The recording process takes around 40 minutes, which is long enough for me to experience the change of sound in my surroundings.

Super Soap, 2016

Here I appropriated the old cartoon from the 80’s called “Super Soap.” It was one of the cartoons made by the Shanghai Animation Studio to satirize Capitalism. It also made fun of Chinese citizens and their “conformist mentality" by pointing out the downfalls of modernization in Shanghai.

Meanwhile, I want to try to point out the ambiguity between Capitalism and Communism through my appropriation. Capitalism means to use money to buy goods; on the other hand, Communism means to use  goods to get money. It is ambiguous to distinguish Capitalism (buying) from Communism (exchanging) in these small transactions of daily life. 

Secret Whispering, 2016

The performance is in a closed space, whereI invited people to the room one by one individually, and whispered my secret in their ears, in another language. The physical distance between me and the person is extremely close, but he or she is disconnected with me because of the language difference. People understand that I am telling something unspeakable in the public, but they can’t understand the context. The contrast between the close body language and the unfamiliar language brings up confusion, doubt and the disconnection with me.