| Summary: | 碩士 === 東海大學 === 美術學系 === 104 === My nephew Ray’s arrival to the world makes me realize the wonder of how a baby grows. We may have good memory, but we easily forget the trivial things. I am no exception, allowing the insignificant to evade my memory. In my forgetfulness, I begin to fear what if none the moment of my life matters at all. Through artmaking, the people surrounding me in my life are engraved on my mind, with traces deeper than picture taking. The sudden death of ssu-ssu has made me fear that my memories are fading away even before I start to forget. I thank them for all the years we have spent together. They are more than pets but family. When they reach the final stage of their lives, it is our turn to take care of them. The five family members who have stayed with us for seventeen years are thus “sealed” in my works.
The introduction, a letter to my nephew, is an explanation of the artistic motif. The first chapter “Ephemeral” includes three parts: I. The Extension of Ambiguity – it is a recent study extended from Dimmer and Dimmer Series to explore the enigmatic, insecure uncertainty; II. Traces of Gaze – memories of the cats are crystalized into the wear-resistant floor, as clean and pure as their ways of being, to confront the tearing forgetfulness with the passing of time; III. The Approaching Fog –- the blurred memory is a vision through the frosted glass, surfacing in our minds to revisualize what the eyes have seen. The second chapter focuses on memory analysis: I. Interacting With Memory – a body is like an multiple-drawer cabinet of memories, placed as an upside down trapezoid, where our memories fade with time of both mercy and cruelty while the faces age in vagueness; II. Where the Heart Belongs to – although cats are dependent on me, it is more like a mutual relationship since I also emotionally depend on their company, especially after spending years with each other; III. The Significance of Seal – one’s self perception is engraved on the place traveling from here to there, the moment from the past to the present, so each moment is verified with fragmented variations. The third chapter “The Passing of Time” include: I. I Miss You, Wherever You Are; II. Dimmer and Dimmer; III. Where Have You Been? The fourth chapter “Loss and Completion” is a thorough conclusion about the whole artmaking process and its effect.
As I go through the artmaking process, my thoughts are also being sorted out. What has time carried away? I thought time would have healed the wounds, but it is something beyond its capability. It simply alleviates the pain. The artmaking process allows me to realize that love never dies. We will never get over the wounds, and our memories will never fade away.
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