I see myself as a Kintsugi-artist. I embrace, mend, and make marks on and with imperfections. Instead of repairing broken pottery with lacquer and gold as in the traditional Japanese artform, I work with scattered memories using animation, 16mm film, video, and participatory art.
I encountered Mahayana and Zen Buddhism at a young age. Its influence partly explains why a Buddhism view that involves attentively looking into impermanence of life lies at the heart of my artworks. After years feeling undeserving and broken as a queer child in China, I began my search for healing through artmaking, education, and community organizing.
My work appreciates and transforms wounds while remaining the restoration process visible and tangible. Informed by my engagement in feminism and queer activism in China and Japan, my recent projects root within personal memories and expand to community (re)-building. Responding to increasing state censorship, my projects happen in spaces of un-expectancy including nail salons, bars, bookstores, and stand-up comedy clubs. Each project is an invitation of connecting/reconnecting based on reciprocal trust. It sometimes exists as a stand-up comedy, a free nail service in return for companionship, or an invitation to design a T-shirt. From these evolving interactions between personal stories, memory, and encounters, I envision to keep producing works that reveal the unexpected aspects of human resilience after trauma.
(@Tianye)