Artist Statement

My work explores a fluid Eastern identity—one that is not confined by traditional symbols but continuously grows, transforms, and reshapes itself at the intersection of culture, history, and personal experience. Having been born in China, moving to Ottawa, Canada at the age of 12, and later studying in Chicago, I have navigated multiple cultural landscapes, each shaping my understanding of identity as something inherently dynamic and evolving. Within the Western art system, Eastern identity is often reduced to a static symbol, yet I seek to transcend this perception, shaping it into a transnational and cross-disciplinary contemporary language that reveals the metamorphosis and reconstruction of the self in a state of flux. I am interested in how identity maintains a certain unperceived continuity amid dissolution and reconstruction, how space unfolds within a two-dimensional plane, how time manifests within sculpture, and how materiality shapes meaning.

For me, painting and sculpture are not separate entities but rather permeate one another. Material is not merely a medium; its inherent properties define the form of the work and the way it is perceived. I experiment with bringing sculptural spatiality into the pictorial plane and allowing the temporal nature of painting to manifest within sculptural forms. In weaving together different materials, I seek a balance between structure and unpredictability.

Ink, to me, is more than just a material—it is a way of thinking. Its fluidity, permeability, and layered nature resist absolute control. The inherent unpredictability of ink places every stroke in a state of indeterminacy, making it both a medium of creation and a metaphor for the process itself. Ink does not belong to a fixed cultural system; rather, it is an evolving means of expression, one that transcends geographical boundaries and embodies the potential for continuous growth, transformation, and fusion.

People tend to see life and death as opposites, existence and disappearance as endpoints, but I believe neither is absolute. Life is a process, and so is death—an ongoing passage in which the self never truly arrives at either extreme. I examine how individuals undergo a transformation in time and how identity sustains itself amid dissolution and reconstruction. Cultural identity is no longer static; it is dynamic, multifaceted, and undefined. My work does not seek to provide answers but rather to pose questions. I continually question through my practice without expecting a resolution.

Art, to me, is an entry into the unknown, a search for boundaries, a confrontation with that which demands to be seen precisely because it resists explanation.

The beyond is not in the distance—it is in all that remains unreached. My works is a series of traces left along the path of the unreached.