Who Should I Be?

Concepts and Ideas and the Steps I took for this project.

Who am I? Honestly I don’t care, but some how I choose the path of an artist. In the pass 2 years I had a lot of comments about what I should be in the future, from my family and friends. They would start from my career choices to how I should look, this happens every time I go back to Taiwan to see them, which frustrated me. But during the days in NZ, I was clear about who I am and what I want to be. So I started to question my family what do they really wanted be to be if I hadn’t gone to art school? 


 

What career would Judy have?   
When will Judy get married?
  
How many children will Judy have?
   
Where will Judy live?
   
What kind of man will Judy’s husband be?
   
What will Judy look like?


My families had a lot of fun answering these questions, imagining who I should be.
I received 13 replies from my family and close friends, and had 13 different career choices. I then dressed up and photographed myself as the person they portrayed.


 

(Art student’s responds: it’s about people who know you, people who had known u for a long time, and those who thinks they still know you. Does anyone really know you?)

At this stage I had stated a clear idea to everyone else of who my family think I should be. But I wanted to know if my family will approve, as being the person they thought I should be. Another set of questions was sent out to my family, along with the photos that matches the Judy of their choice.  
Thank you for answering my questions, they were all very interesting, this is the photo I have taken to show you what I think your version is of me. Now the question is, is it correct? Do I look like what you have imagined? Is there anything you want to change? If there are what are they?

My families were very happy to see the results. Some say I should be an actress instead.


 

While I had to wait for the letters to be returned by mail, I researched ideas about Asian family pressure, and the idea behind being a Banana (white on the inside and yellow on the outside).

I found the “Banana Blog” from Canada, which had young Asians who also had been frustrated with their families and Asian culture telling stories and opinions about their lives.  I have learnt that, a Banana: someone who is completely forgotten their Asian roots, a Westernised Asian: someone who knows about western culture but still live like an Asian, a Jook-Sing: means Bamboo, someone who feels hollow on the inside and not too sure where they belong to.

I had tried to set up a blog, but my friends were a little too afraid to comment on these ideas. (www.BananaBlogNZ.blogspot.com) Reading the Canadian Banana Blog,
I picked out some phrases that responded to some of the questions that I wanted to answer. I used these phrases in my final presentation.
    1. As a soundtrack: voices of Asians saying their frustrations. along with an installation of a typical Asian study space.
    2. Badges

 

Aims: I want the audience to know how does it feel to be an Asian with all the family pressure for a better life.
I want the Asian audience to engage with each other, and to let then know that everyone knows about the family pressure, and there are places to express and show how they feel.

Even though my Asian friends who has I seen my works, had not say that they have these experiences in the past or now. I could feel they were happy, glad and relieve that I had put theirs and mine frustrations into a work.

Non-Asians thought the soundtracks were, insightful, interesting, powerful, some never heard about the Asian pressures, asking is this how you really feel? and some found it quite funny.

October '06


Faces

How many expressions can you make?

Being in the crowd of people, especially the tight packed Taiwanese kind, reminds me of the simple times in Taiwan. The times where night markets were the highlights of the weekend and where the fun never ends.  
I wanted to know how many different expressions and faces I could come up with, so i can draw the expressions to talk about my feelings about the crowd. Instead I found myself looking at the series of photos, reading them like words on a page. Which got me thinking about flip books and animations, so I set out to take more photos and made them into a wall paper and animations. (click on the photo to see the series)

However, I also went back to the question on the feelings of being in the crowd. I drew a pattern that represented symbols of people on a large piece of fabric, and made that fabric into a cape where I can always be in a crowd.

July '06


The View/ Little Black Books

These are a set of works I did to experience Digital Photography and Photoshop.

The View, is a series of four A2 size photos that uses the natural light to give a small model of a room, a feeling of the real atmosphere.

Little Black Books, is a series of seven black hard-cover books. They are made from thick cardboard children's books, with photos that show a scene as you turn the pages. Without  words the series lets the viewers to make up their own stories and maybe bring them back to the simple times.

July '06