Artist Philosophy

To revisit the experiences of the past, re-present the memory of events and people, explore and re-interpret cultural iconography, and mediate the above mentioned through form and materiality has interwoven and actualized the very existence of my studio art practice.

A work of art addresses more than just the form. It interweaves together signifiers that bring to mind the interconnectivity of form, content, and context. Since the beginning of my college art education, I have come to understand better the importance of grounding my self-identity within the socio-cultural and historical contexts that I connect with. I have also discovered along the way symbols that derived from my life experience are powerful signifiers to define who I am in art making. To incorporate the two strands of thoughts into art making has since become the primary endeavor of my studio art practice. Over the years, orchestrating the personal experience coded symbols to address personal queries on self identity has turned into a significant component in my studio art practice. They are the keys that open gateways for me to reconstruct a platform illustrating selected interactions of mine with the world and hence to draw out my view about issues that I chose to discuss. These signifiers might seem scattered and unrelated, like broken pieces of memory within a work of art. Nevertheless, once links are formed among them, like thread being woven into a piece of tapestry, they would generate together layers of meanings that formulate contexts and narratives that in turn unveiling a multitude of possible interpretations.

A work of art, at the same time, is the beginning to a journey of imagination for not only the artist but also the viewer. Art making does not come to an end once a work is done. The signifiers on the artwork have now become stimuli for the viewers to recall their own personal experience and to construct yet another meaning that intersect with that of the artist’s. In this light, the interplay of context and symbolic meaning in my artwork attempts to bring to the viewers an awareness of the temporality of being and an unavoidability of otherness.

The physical presentation of my art is usually quiet and unimposing. Nevertheless, I would like the work to resonate within the viewers an awakening of a long forgotten self … perhaps even an awareness of seeing and reading things as if they could be otherwise once the viewers are aware of my interpretation of the work. I believe a work of art should be free from the restriction of a preconceived sense of space and content as it provides the artist with a way to express and the viewers a way to re-interpret, regardless of time and physical space.

Research Philosophy

My ongoing research interest lies in observing and making sense of the influence of socio-cultural and historical contexts on the contingent formation of self and how these negotiations within an individual are being mediated into art making.

Hauser (1982) stated the creation of art is determined by the interplays of multitude factors, for instance, nature and culture, geography and race, time and place, biology and psychology, and economic and social class, etc. and “none of them asserts itself consistently in the same sense; each acquires its particular meaning according to the context in which it appears with the other in the development.” (Huaser, 1982, p. 94) Although my personal artistic growth is a testimonial to his statement above, I began to understand his words better examined the formation of individual artistic style among a group of young artists that graduated from CAFA (the Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing). Juxtaposed my on going studio art practice with those of the participants’ and examined the similarities and differences under the scope of socio-cultural and historical lens shined a new and different lights on the notion of self in art making for me. The outcome of the research, thus far, is my dissertation titled To occupy a different space of mind – Investigating the connectivity between the socio-cultural and historical contexts and the positioning of self in the studio art practice of the Post Eighty Generation Artists in Beijing. The research not only gave me opportunities to interact with the participants and to make sense of their artistic creation, but it also marked a significant step of my academic research interest in the area. By studying the studio art practice of the young Chinese artists, I found a reality that parallels and at the same time intersects with that of mine. It is from this reality that the young artists find their identity in art making; it is also through this very reality that I see the grandeur and multiplicity of contemporary context and reaffirm the importance of celebrating the connectivity between contexts and self in artistic creation.

To mediate and address the influences of socio-cultural and historical contexts on self by way of studio art making, not only enables artists to search for and to formulate their very own artistic identity, but it also helps them to understand and look at the world open-mindedly. Whether it is from a researcher or an artist point of view, context ought not to be understood as a horizontal platform or as a lineal chain of events. Rather, it is best described as messy yet sensible interconnectivity that transcends the idea of time and space. To make sense of this mess through art making is actually not as frustrating as it might seem. It is like genealogy, like drawing our own family tree on a piece of paper. If we are patient and diligent enough, it will gradually turn into an infinite endeavor that fit pieces of a puzzle together; and the endeavor, at the same time, will construct in front of us an amazing world that we dare to imagine.

Teaching Philosophy

On Education

When knowledge becomes problematic, then education is to open a window and to bring in light that inculcates within human minds the possibilities of otherwise.

Knowledge empowers, it gives an individual a clearer mind to read and to understand the surrounding world. However, it also forms within an individual a filter that prevents the person from comprehending the same world better. Knowledge, hence, could turn into an entrapment.

In the spring of 2009, I heard Maxine Greene addressing education in a seminar. Of all the issues that she discussed, the connotation “open a window on the wall” that she began the lecture with keep coming back to me through the course of the years. Indeed, her philosophy on education is significant for me in defining myself as an educator. I hardly questioned the value of knowledge and education but Greene really “opened up a window that bring in light” for me. Perhaps society has inculcated in our minds a utilitarian perception in understanding education. It has been reduced to mere means for knowledge transmission so individuals could be better equipped as useful citizens and civilized beings. Greene’s manifestation, somehow, made me realized that perhaps, through transmission of knowledge, education had also formed within us walls that stopped individuals from seeing things beyond the already known. Therefore, educators should be aware that learning to look at things from other perspectives and to realize the possibilities of otherwise is equally important if not more in education.

On Studio Art Practice:

If studio art practice is a life style, then the essence of art making lies not in an end product but in a forever evolving creation.

We ought to value more the process that we took to bring to the world a temporal moment of pause as these moments give others more than just a completion of an artistic endeavor or a conclusion of a particular phase of our life as an art maker. They inclusive of all that we took to arrive to that particular place and time as living human beings. Nevertheless, before we depart on yet another venture, we ought to also be mindful that the new voyage starts not afresh but from where we left off, be it in art making or in defining ourselves as a human being. For us to travel light while carrying along with us the ‘personal or societal burdens from the past’, we ought to constantly reflect upon ourselves honestly the steps that we took in defining our state of being. If our art is a true reflection of who we are, perhaps the process of art making is about nothing else but “being honest to ourselves”.