Dearly Beloved
∞
ongoing
video, work on paper, sculpture, installation
What started as a home documentary of the artist’s niece Iris’ health condition has become a (auto)biographical throughline in a number of the artist’s recent projects. Iris, currently 11 years old, is a wildly-imaginative first generation Taiwanese American with East Asian and Caucasian roots. Born with PFFD (Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency), Iris is expected to receive a series of orthopedic operations and cosmetic treatments throughout her childhood and adult life to enhance the functionality and appearance of a deformed leg. The artist began documenting Iris’ daily life in 2015, collecting moments of the girl’s ‘childhood brilliance’ on video and film.
Ideas of beauty, mobility, innocence, agency, girlhood, and growing up intertwine with the artist’s private contemplation on her own identity insecurity that associates desirability with Whiteness, authenticity with cultural or racial hybridity, and womanhood with motherhood. The lush, dynamic landscape and topography of Iris’s hometown Seattle, Washington sets the majestic and mystical tonality in several of the artist’s related work, while Iris’ spontaneous demeanor and active imagination incite a restless sense of movement and inspire fantastical scenarios in others.
Related work:
For Iris (Rijksakademie)
Miniatures
Self Portrait As Iris As an Idea
For Iris
I’ve Left My Body to Occupy Others
When Mountlake Terrace Dreams
You Are My Sunshine
∞
ongoing
video, work on paper, sculpture, installation
What started as a home documentary of the artist’s niece Iris’ health condition has become a (auto)biographical throughline in a number of the artist’s recent projects. Iris, currently 11 years old, is a wildly-imaginative first generation Taiwanese American with East Asian and Caucasian roots. Born with PFFD (Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency), Iris is expected to receive a series of orthopedic operations and cosmetic treatments throughout her childhood and adult life to enhance the functionality and appearance of a deformed leg. The artist began documenting Iris’ daily life in 2015, collecting moments of the girl’s ‘childhood brilliance’ on video and film.
Ideas of beauty, mobility, innocence, agency, girlhood, and growing up intertwine with the artist’s private contemplation on her own identity insecurity that associates desirability with Whiteness, authenticity with cultural or racial hybridity, and womanhood with motherhood. The lush, dynamic landscape and topography of Iris’s hometown Seattle, Washington sets the majestic and mystical tonality in several of the artist’s related work, while Iris’ spontaneous demeanor and active imagination incite a restless sense of movement and inspire fantastical scenarios in others.
Related work:
For Iris (Rijksakademie)
Miniatures
Self Portrait As Iris As an Idea
For Iris
I’ve Left My Body to Occupy Others
When Mountlake Terrace Dreams
You Are My Sunshine
Work list:
Still images from footages filmed in the United States and Taiwan, work in progress
Prisoner
2018
single channel video
2’11”
Dog Attack
2019
single channel video
3’20”
Still images from footages filmed in the United States and Taiwan, work in progress
Prisoner
2018
single channel video
2’11”
Dog Attack
2019
single channel video
3’20”