The integral whole represents a symbolic ideal. An integral map points to the necessary stages of moving toward that destined ideal. Works from the three series I Would Love to Become an Author, Gifts for Those Artists, and Atlas will be included in this solo exhibition. The former two examine external influences on my artistic contemplations and learning, while the latter describes my own internal thought and creative processes in recent years.

I. I Would Love to Become an Author

For artists of my generation and subsequent generations, narrative abilities are a basic requirement and training. This phenomenon reflects the challenges that confront artists today: how art is perceived, how the very definition of art has transformed, as well as the realities contemporary art as assimilated into the category of ideology. I believe a wonderful relationship exists between narrative and creativity, where being able to maintain in a balanced stasis of both is a skill in itself. Writing narratives benefits creative thought, but this does not refer to a textual representation or theorizing of art.

I have made an interesting self-discovery: of the artists who have profoundly impacted my creativity, many are geometric abstract artists; and many considered to be “authors among authors”. I have combined six sets of texts in the form of written compositions, with scenes from my studio in attempt to express my views on written compositions. When I say that I would love to become an author, I am not expressing an aspiration to use words as a medium of expression, but rather, that I long to become an artist of the same caliber as these geometric abstract artists.

II. Gifts for Those Artists

What is the intention of the academic content in art departments in today's educational environment? Without training in the techniques of representation, nor in the manipulation of aesthetic contentions, what we are faced with are all-encompassing issues and limitless scopes of knowledge that render me powerless and overwhelmed, and make me nostalgic for my own learning experiences that were highly subjective and wholly artistic in mode: other artists were a conduit through which I observed and understood people, objects, and events.

My decision to create in the mode of a (artist's) book is based on my supposition that books are analogous to knowledge (cumulative learning). I have chosen ten of my previous works as a primary source for the main images, and given them titles that correspond not only to their form but also to their inspiration. On the one hand, this method pays homage to the artists who have provided me with creative inspiration and sustenance, and on the other hand it is a self-referential wink and nod to the act of "recycling" one's own previous works (an inspection of an artist's behaviors and deeds).

III. Atlas

In most instances, my work is presented as components to a series. The significance of creating these series is to highlight specific systems of thought. For instance in my Taipei Series, I describe exhibition venues in Taipei where my works have been shown. The objective is not to recount my exhibition resume, but rather by depicting my own personal experiences, to draw attention to the positional relationship between exhibiting entities with artists similar in background to me.

I have collected draft sketches from several major creative series that have been in development since 2010. Reproductions have been constructed of these themes at different stages of development; on the one hand, as an attempt to preserve the contemplative state of a sketch as a source of ideal objects, and on the other hand, to eliminate the original roughness in the effort to rapidly bring a concept to fruition. This series of work that have been recreated from draft sketches are no longer sketches, nor are they the finished works that were ultimately developed from the original sketches. By depicting works in progress, I hope to effectively display the conceptual systems behind the finished works, while simultaneously unveil the workings of the creative process.