Statement / Artist's Statement

A recurrent theme characterises my work: how technology affects our world. Technology is a transversal dimension of our civilisation. It pervades the way we communicate, exchange and interact at individual and collective levels; it impacts our environment and the environment. Using the medium of paintings, sculptures, installations and action shows, I express these tensions by opposing tradition and modernity, by creating incongruous associations and by confronting civilisations.

At the time in 2000 when I completed my Taiwanese studies by a Master in Fine Art in the UK, my work primarily focussed on the concept of networks and links. I explored the crisis affecting modern communication through the lens of computer hardware, such as the representation of diverging mice and the chaotic collage of PCBs. I made reference to ancient communication tools evoking oriental culture, where pigeons and kites would portray the gracious and fluid harmony associated to a mythical past.

On my return to Taiwan, I developed the "Sky Lantern Project" for the sci-tech RD centre in Taipei, in 2002. The sky lantern used to be a military communication tool in ancient China, relying on the heat of a small light captured in a hood of paper to send signals into the air. During the events, I invited the public to provide hand written messages of peace and harmony, which were written on sky lanterns and subsequently launched in the darkness of an evening sky.

The "Balefire Project" was presented in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on 9 November 2003. The intention of the project was to recreate episodes of the 9/11 attacks on the top of urban landmarks and imbue the episodes with references to the practice by defenders at the Great Wall in China of using smoke signals, made by burning wolf dung, to communicate emergency military situations. The original plan was to ignite columns of modern signal smoke atop the most pre-eminent skyscrapers in Kaohsiung. The operation was widely reported by the media and triggered the threat of charges from government departments afraid of generating public panic. The scale of the project was finally reduced to a single building due to administrative pressure: this scale-downed outcome vividly illustrated the "war" between artists and authorities when avant-garde artists present their works in public urban areas without the protection of well-established art institutions. Touching on the collective memories of danger in ancient times and their dialogue with contemporary social reforms, art performances entering public space such as the Balefire Project unearth deep and unconscious fears.

The "IT Christ" sculpture was presented in the art space of Academia Sinica, Taipei in 2005. I made a 3m-tall and 200kg-heavy statue of technology with a large amount of computer parts and components. It symbolised the global worship of technology and people's reverence towards, and dependence on, technology. Influenced by the misconceptions of the technology cult, humans across the globe proudly launch into unlimited expansion in the name of technological development and civilisation, but without noticing the traps that hide behind the vanity of civilisation. Technology is a dangerous icon, who can easily turn into an ante-Christ for whom does not know how to apply it wisely. The "Plates Shifting" project was installed as part of "2 Asias 2 Europes", an international contemporary exhibition held in Shanghai at the Duolun MoMA, in 2005. Physically extracting countries from any Eurasian continent would disturb the balance of the regional tectonic plates. Countries were represented by individual radio-controlled plates, able to hit each other. Visitors taking control of the plates would cause the installation to jingle, thus revealing the tensions and clashes deriving from the current competition between these countries in the political and economic arena, as well as from regional religious conflicts shacking the fragile social balance.

The aim of this interactive work was to explore the interrelations between Eurasian countries, and in doing that one could not ignore or eliminate the possibility of US intervention in regional situations. A shark's fin cruising among the shifting plates was used to symbolise US intervention in world affairs.

As the visiting artist of the International Artist Workshop at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art in 2005, I began to develop the "Globalisation Health Check" series. Models of human organs normally used in medical autopsy education were supporting my creative process.

In Chinese culture, the Five Viscera or Five Organs-heart, liver, stomach, lungs and kidneys-are associated with the Chinese system of Five Phases that also includes the Five Elements, Five Planets, Five Metals and Five Colours. The viscera are the focus of traditional Chinese medicine, which seeks to maintain a proper balance among their energies. The heart is the central command of the human activities and the most important organ. It directs and coordinates the other organs to complete all complicated and complex physiological activities. Without a healthy heart, the activities of the other organs become chaotic and diseases pervade.

The once expressionless human body models were assigned images of international events in the form of masks that are used in the Beijing opera, stretching this traditional symbolic vocabulary to figuratively interpret how the world changes with China rising again. International conflicts and treacherous international relations were depicted with abstract and simplified virus codes and some patterns evoking skin diseases. A strange puzzle of international politics emerged where the spearhead of incisive criticism is directly pointing to the value system guided by global capitalism.

Besides depicting the rises and falls and the reality of cultural conflicts and terrorism as a result of the irresistible trend towards globalisation, some of the most iconic modern brands and labels were used to illustrate the absurdity of consumerism decreed as universal religion. Civil airplanes with the trademarks of McDonald's, Coca-Cola or Louis Vuitton crashed into the organ works depicting the national flags of different countries, as if re-enacting the tragic 9/11 attacks. The heart, symbolising global economic development directed by the G8, represented how these countries use and leverage capitalism to subdue worldwide economies to their domestic interests. It was also a metaphor for the international reality where mutual attacks among countries arise from economic interests, cultural intolerance, racism and religious ideology exacerbated by globalisation. Though they may sound like pure Hollywood storylines, an Israeli civil airplane attacking the US, the UK being hit by the US space shuttle, or Germany being hit by a Swiss International Airlines jet would indeed all be breaking news for media such as CNN or the BBC while other countries are desperate to get international help for critical issues of a much wider impact facing them on a long term basis.

The rapid development of human civilisation has brought rich material life in to some parts of the world. However, the vast majority of the human beings are still struggling to survive: the law of the jungle evidenced in human nature by the strong slaying the weak is also evidenced by globalisation. In "Globalisation Health Check", I exchanged my role as an artist to that of a physician examining the health of globalisation. I treated the globe as one single life form and analysed its incurable condition.I started the "Globalisation Health Check" series with the heart and continued the theme by exploring the other organs of the human body. I also employed white marble, which was the preferred medium for recording the merits of the imperial families in ancient China, to capture the history of globalisation development.

It would not take long before I became even more explicit in expressing my concerns about the Planet health. In 2006, I introduced penguins in my work. These potentially endangered species epitomise for me both global warning and the way the public is starting to awake and get mobilised.

The "Melting Penguins" series are frontal messages, using dichotomy and anachronism to convey how radically our environment and ultimately our way of life will be affected if we do not take full action now. Portrayed by the media as cuddly and sweet animals, I throw penguins into extreme environments distorted by the human hand, I get them to melt and lose their substance on the planet stage. There is nothing optimistic in these desolated scenes. The objective is not to trigger empathy but to generate reactions of revolt against what may become our future.

The essence of my work is my qualm about the direction the world is taking, the purpose of my work lies in its modest ability to question and challenge the ambient status quo, the fuel of my work stems from its interaction with the public.