text by Juin Shieh
Retracing my artwork since 2001, in Chora I, I portrayed experiences of my pregnancy as well as the bringing up of my daughter. Through paintings and drawings, accompanied by doing research, writing and publishing, I recorded and got intoxicated by this phase of a brand new lifestyle. During this period, my mind was diving in the world built by Julia Kristeva’s concept of “chora,” Luce Irigaray’s methodology of “Speculum,” and Helene Cixous’ “Writing Said to be Feminine” (Écriture Féminine). Through persistent writing, drawing and painting, I adopted Greek Mythology as well as various interpretations of femininity, and presented them as visual expressions. I retrieved my work for the past five years when my daughter, who once saw a pregnant woman and asked if she could return to my womb. In 2006, I made an interactive video installation, Chora II. In this piece, I cut paper into different shapes that symbolized Venus: Chinese female dolls, the “Venice of Willendorf,” Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus,” and the “Guerrilla Girls.” These paper dolls were collected as female genealogy from different periods and cultures. I recorded four different moving shadows, superimposed them onto one another, and then projected the film on the wall. People who walked by also found their own shadow superimposed onto the shadows of Venus. In this way, I gave my daughter and all the viewers a chance to return to Mother’s womb.
While developing Chora III in 2007, I applied digital technology, using a sensor to reverse the moving shadows from Chora II onto the visitor’s own projected shadow. A baby’s innocent and naughty laughter would echo in the viewer’s shadow called by a sensor. That would remind one the feelings of being in Mother’s womb and being touched. My intention was to get the viewer to be involved with the image of female genealogy I made, and to realize where we are from. These interactions became one with the viewer’s own shadow.
Chora II visually led me into the thought of different shades of gray, in which the filmed juxtaposed shadows were presented. In 2008, I made a series of drawings called Untouchable Intruding where the drawn lines were blurred as background layers, and then were presented in contrast to the final sharp outline. The content is two moving yet untouchable hands, inspired by my learning of Tai Chi Chuan (Shadow Boxing). During Tai Chi Chuan practice, an inward energy is released by breathing and evoked by body movement. In drawing, I tried to present this invisible energy with two active hands that don’t touch each other yet exchange each other’s “Chi” (internal flow of body energy). Meanwhile, my oil paintings dug into the possibilities of this invisible energy. The feminine decorative lace pattern was used for the structure of a woman’s body. However, instead of being graceful, I made it muscular and full of violent force like an immodestly growing grapevine. What I tried to present is the veiled power of a woman.
In order to keep my life in a certain normal state, I have been 2 working hard to sustain a balance between my inner world and the outside platform. My inner world is full of noisy voices speaking of its stress and contention from the real world, yet the outside platform is well ordered and peaceful because of my unremitting efforts and management. For me, art is an exit from my inner world, acting like a factory and its chimney. The more active the factory is, the more smoke will be created and 3 released through the chimney, just like ‘smudging the canvas.’ My life and my art are therefore interlaced with each other. |
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