November 2012
Daily actions, incidents and thoughts are often regarded as unimportant and not worthy of attention. I remove these from their regular context and try to attach them to my own memories and experiences. Rituals, origin, traditions, home and identity are important issues, in which my own view of life and my surroundings are the starting point.
My work is about a search of identity within a world full of traditions, rituals and responsibilities. I questing myself, my life and my heritage. Am I an European or an Asian, or both? Growing up in Holland, my Chinese roots became very mysterious. I found out that without the culture surrounding me it stayed veiled. I’m looking for myself through investigating the one thing I truly understand about my Asian heritage, food. By comparing ways of eating, preparations and ingredients with my Dutch heritage, I’m trying to find my own identity.
Not only food, but also the household draws my attention. How we experience our homes and have different ways of filling them with memories and belonging. I’m finding not only differences in cultures but also differences within people or even myself. Gaining from my own memories I try to relive memories through rooms, places and belongings. By placing all different ways of doing chores or utensils next to each other I’m trying to figure out why we all have our own way. By looking through history I’m looking for the source that will answer how and why we use curtain ingredients and utensils.
Drawing from this information and perspective, I study the various interrelations. After a process of categorizing, unraveling and purification, an intense concentration becomes visible, revealing the essence of both my own and human thinking and behavioral structure.
Looking at all my subjects I find that the source is always alike. The nature of my process is so diverse the form of the art pieces are varied. Because I always work from a concept, the process is the most important and there for always decisive for the disciple and form. This freedom in form gives space for a creative process where thinking and making are alternated. For finding out what kind of material or technique works. I find it important that I can executed my own work, there for I’m always learning and finding new ways to manipulate techniques and materials.
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Dagelijkse handelingen, gebeurtenissen en gedachten worden vaak gezien als onbelangrijk en lijken niet meer op te vallen. Ik haal deze uit hun context en probeer ze te verbinden aan mijn eigen herinneringen en belevingen. Dingen als rituelen, afkomst, traditie, thuis en identiteit zijn belangrijk, waarin vooral mijn eigen kijk op de wereld en mijn omgeving het uitgangspunt is. Vanuit al deze informatie en perspectieven onderzoek ik de onderliggende verbanden. Na een process van inkaderen, uitpluizen en zuiveren, word teen intense concentratie zichtbaar, die de essentie van zowel mijn eigen als de menselijke denk- en gedragsstructuren openbaart.