Stories of particular individuals who cross the border between art and life attract and hold our attention. By introducing people who work in specialized professions almost completely unknown to us, I try to tell the stories of artisans whose auras have reached the state of art. I had been making videos that narrate stories of such everyday masters as a tight-rope walker, embroider, and a movie sign painter. While portraying the lives of these people who continue to hone their skills, which are slowly being forgotten, my work also seeks in these stories points of connection with the attitude of an artist searching for an unreachable ideal.

In the same concept, the series of my previous works tell the stories of a tightrope walker, a machine embroidery designer, and a sign painter.A woman working at a Kimchi factory in the story of Something Red, and an elderly man fishing from the shore in the story of The Old Man and the Sea,these everyday masters whom we can find easily in our everyday surroundings do not belong to the category of artists in general, but they strive to achieve the ultimate ideal objectives that they have set for themselves, and I have discerned in their undertakings a sort of the attitude of an artist. They are positioned on the border between everyday life and arts, making their livings through their ‘arts’.I felt that their stories and attitudes towards life, namely, their ways of living, showed how I could solve my own afflictions and problems and what I would like to learn from them.I believe that the ideal state for an artist is that art and daily life are undividedly orchestrated together, thus I dream of such life as an artist. 

Yet when I am exposed to many different problems in social reality and tried to jostle, the two are forced to be parted.This experience of commuting between the extremes of everyday life and art, of the ideal and the real, the individual artist and the public arts makes me feel like a funambulist walking riskily on a high tight rope. You might say that I borrowed their’ story to tell my understanding of art.I think there is a blurry boundary between life and art. The criteria that demarcate and palpably establish that boundary can be the tastes of individuals, social prejudices or attitudes towards jobs.

I neither see something artistic in all those attitudes, but there is a magical moment when the overall aura embracing one person makes his or her doings to be believed as activities of artistry. The people who appear in the series of videos, must have such magical moments which entrance me. Having been seen from a general point of view, some of them can be registered in a more artistic category or something else then everyday life.Yet I attempt to extend their’ stories in my works by regarding their artistic attitudes they retain.

When I was doing a research in Taiwan, coexist of the past and present is the thing that attracts. So I’m currently working and expecting to meet many professionals in everyday life. The process of interviewing them face to face gave me deeper understanding of Taiwan society and made me learn a lot from them. Through this project, I will share communications and sympathy with the people of this place. Due to the limitation of video as a medium, presenting through exhibition would be essential to share my art and feelings during the residency.