“Taïwan / France at once !”

My current artistic project was organised around the creation of an atmosphere, of a real and unreal vision which summarizes one same time. This perception spreads images taken during several trips, these images are fragmented and remixed, then new ones are created by mixing fabrics, strings and other materials.

The starting point of this project was in 2007 for the group exhibition “Gare aux arts” organised in the Champagne-Ardenne region (Orcca Champagne-Ardenne), when I made my first suitcase and dressed it with the French traditional fabric “toile de Jouy” and the Taiwanese traditional fabric as well. It was presented inside the station of Troyes and integrated into this environnement of travellers with unknown destinations.

The solo exhibition “AXX°NN” at CAMAC art center in 2010 was when the collection “My suitcases” evolved with the appearance of a web of roots made of toile de Jouy coming from the base of the suitcases. These roots represent the developpment of questions about “identity” which will progressively grow within my work.

“expatriation, migration, integration”

My quest for identity materialized in 2014 while preparing for the exhibition at Reims city hall.

Double life between Taiwan and France since my new identity card was issued, my new nationality, my new birth, my new life… I am proud to be French and Taiwanese at the same time, which confuses me sometimes.

From then on, the mix of fabrics in my work (the French fabric “toile de Jouy” and the traditional Taiwanese fabric) adapts floral patterns found on both fabrics and integrates the decorations, the love scenes and the landscapes from the former into the vibrant and colorful surfaces from the latter. It merges two distinct cutural characteristics which are geographically, historically and culturally different. From a simple proposition, the collection “99” was born in 2016 as a vital process of identity.

The code 99 is a number given by the French government to a person born abroad. This 99 is often written in the “department of birth” field of a social security number, or in the “birth place” field of any official documents. In chinese, the number 9 represents longevity and 99 represents eternity.

These meanings are found in this comprehensive work which centers on the identity of a person or a place (city, country) evolving over time, endlessly.

“cut, paste; construct, deconstruct; assemble, separate; tear off, sew; decompose, compose; structure, destructure; form, deform…”

Always begin with a piece, of a newspaper, of a fabric, of a picture, of a color, of old works, and then with the string, create links, repair what is broken, weave, unstitch, sew…it also brings about a reflection on attachment, succession, junction…

The first works of this collection are still conventional, bucolic even, and quite representational. They focus on cutural differences through the use of Taiwanese and French traditional fabrics. In these pieces, the topic of travel or expatriation and the topic of a difference of cultures appears, all of this treated in a concrete manner. The first questions about the evolution of identity are tackled by decomposing the very structure of the these fabrics’ fiber in order to reweave a new surface.

This previously unheard of textile, which merges my two origins perfectly, brings back the memory of Giuseppe Castiglione’s (1688-1766) work. He was an italian painter for the Qianlong Emperor of China (1736-1797), and he managed to adopt the techniques of Chinese painting while keeping some balance with his Western techniques. He didn’t hesitate to experiment with hybrid techniques in order to create unexpected artworks claimed by the history of Chinese painting.

Then time goes by, the pieces become more intense, the representational aspect of the beginning is lost and we are submerged or integrated in the abstract world of feelings. The string, red as blood, which covers the works – their front and their surface – becomes denser, replaces, covers, smothers the original fabric, thus giving it another identity. A new identity appears and with it new questions…the red takes its place and new fabrics appear…a never ending evolution…

“stepping out of the frame is a necessity”

Then another step begins : stepping out of the frame, the end of the rectangular frame, the end of right angles, the necessity of going forward, not staying trapped in certainty, nothing is fixed, everything evolves…it is the search for freedom.

The square shapes disappear and lands appear, which is strengthened by the use of maps. Accumulations, embossing, mountains emerge, red as blood, are they representing scars burried deep down our being?

“The map isn’t the land”, this sentence by Alfred KORZYBKI explains with a metaphore that each being builds their own vision of the world, that is to say that each person has their own idea of a place, of a person, of a movie, or of any other experiences through the experiences they lived and their education, be it from family, friends, lovers or buisness relations. The things they lived is going to forge their own representation of the world. It entails that a unique map of the world doesn’t exist, but instead there are as many maps as there are people.