gummi Chandelier ii in detail

gummi Chandelier ii in detail
Inside the gummi bear Chandelier Jr.

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Haven installation in Sharjah, UAE


Sharjah CalligraphyBiennial is a celebration of Arabic calligraphy art where hundreds of Arabic calligraphers from around the world gather every two years. Scholars, critics and curators of Arabic calligraphy, and artists who are not calligraphers but use calligraphy as their media also participate in this festival that spans a couple of months and comprises parallel exhibitions in multiple museums, seminars, panel discussions, workshops, and award ceremonies. This was my second time being part of the Biennial and, as in the first time, I was amazed by the beauty and versatility of Arabic calligraphy.

Light boxes on the exterior wall of Sharah Art Museum
One of the exhibitions features international artists like me whose contemporary work incorporates calligraphy. For several years, I have saved boxes of my mother’s calligraphy studies from the landfills and created large sculptural installations with them. Since I am interested in expanding the sensory components in my installation by working with choreographers or musicians, I invited my composer friend Jie Ma to lend a piece this time.

The production itself took several months with the assistance of two friends. Together, we made 5,667 paper bricks including approximate 1,600 blank ones and 5,000 with calligraphy studies. Each brick was folded from one or two sheets of Chinese calligraphy paper (double xuan paper) or tracing paper to increase the strength but still maintaining the translucency.

Considering the light weight of the paper bricks, experiments and engineering had to be carried out. Ryan from M.A.S. Plastics in Van Nuys mapped out the diagram according to my design and cut strips of thin acrylic to form the two “shelves” where paper bricks will sit on. Each shelf holds paper bricks of 14-stack high which is the highest without compromising the integrity of ones in the bottom.

“Haven”(detail)
The professional staff at SharjahArt Museum and Sharjah Art Foundation worked tirelessly before and after the artists arrived in Sharjah. It is especially heartwarming to me because I have worked with the same team when I installed another show here in 2014, another unconventional and labor-intensive process. It is delightful to see old friends on the other side of the world again. The technicians and museum staff, some with more than two decades of experience, are exhibition experts and my “Santa Clauses” who make wishes come true! “Haven” is a challenging project to be installed for the first time. I didn’t know what to expect but I knew I was in good hands.

Abdul Rahman from south India with 23 years of art installing experience assisted me installing "Haven"
Shah Jahan is the lighting guru I had to communicate with first. Once I secured his assistance, the most important task is accomplished. The thing I admire the most about these technicians are their dedication and willingness to go the extra mile in order to materialize an artist’s vision. No hesitation, no compromise. As soon as I relayed my desire to light nothing but the bricks and we experimented with a few paper bricks to determine the lighting needed to achieve the translucency, Shah Jahan’s decision was quick: all the lights and tracks are to be removed from the ceiling and reinstalled on the walls. 

An empty gallery is the most wonderful sculpture, full of promise.
Next, Abdul Rahman, who only put up with my ever-changing mind for the tenth time, stood on the scaffolding drilling 100 holes on the concrete ceiling and patching. After the painters touched up the ceiling for the third time, David, who specializes in exhibition flooring, installed the exhibition carpet. It is a felt-like material with adhesive backing, a wonderful solution to a painted floor, and minimizes the shoe prints on a dark floor. Then, a tough phase followed, the acrylic strips took us another 3 full days to get them up and leveled due to some engineering problems.

Acrylic strips are up and swinging.
At last, the fun started: unpacking 61 boxes, picking and choosing the right paper bricks for each level while creating a visual balance between the blank and the written ones. I am the only one who can decide where which one goes and, steadily, on the swinging acrylic strips, I laid the bricks of my mother’s and my labor for another 36 hours.



The acrylic strips and the paper brick walls were swaying due to the strong air flow by the air conditioning. Museum AC team was called to redirect the vent. The lighting technician came back to install the flood lights on the walls. 


The maquette in my studio few months ago is now realized in full scale in Sharjah Art Museum, exactly the way I envisioned it.

In the final stretch, cut-out words were suspended in the center of the labyrinth and the pool of ink was set up. 



Shah Jahan came to set up the barn doors to fine tune the lighting on the center wall. A few days before the opening, the protective film was peeled off from the exhibition carpet and the final clean-up was conducted.
This photo is not for publicity but is my favorite, showing the installation next to the Islamic patterned window casting a beautiful reflection on the marble floor.



Thursday, January 30, 2014

Monet的豆沙紅

Claude Monet 1889 Valley of the Creuse, Evening Effect oil on canvas 65 x 81 cm Musée Marmottan-Monet, Paris


Monet的豆沙紅,
在晚午時分攀上了山崖邊,
湊合著對角山頭的陽光與花海
教粉紅幽幽隱著暗調的raw umber

近乎涅的焦褐垂倚在曠遠的紫綠前,
樹蔭背光下,雙眼摟著一層降階音符,
陽光欲墜。
Monet的豆沙紅蒸發起下邊的枯茶棕,
圓潤筆尖勾起波波伶俐的亮小豆。

初識的淡粉清黃膚紅水藍
難耐寸寸中年登高望遠伴失落。
Monet的豆沙紅揚起,
鋪灑了自信也裹不住的抑鬱。

2013.12.24與母親賞國立歷史博物館「印象·經典」莫內展

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

It is inherently rebellious


It is inherently rebellious,
tempting us to search day and night 
until One of us finds the tension so thin 
that a gentle tap can break the surface.

It is the rhythm that swings between two aspens in a field of white verticals,
each stretches to the blue before green caps the desire off,
a desire we did not recognize until it is a lost dream.
I too yearn for the permission to break,
yet tending to the tension so that 
all remain agreeable.

It is inherently rebellious, 
retracting time backwards while pushing us forward,
much like sitting in a train travelling in the opposite direction,
where the world glamours itself before we have a chance to touch or savor it.

It does not belong to us after all.
It does not belong to any of those we think it belongs to either.
It is inherently rebellious, didn't I tell you?

It breaks where we uphold it well and
merges where incisions are performed repeatedly.
I've seen it flee under a solidified status,
I've seen it linger when all was washed away in a flash. 
It is inherently rebellious, didn't I tell you?

Sunday, September 23, 2012

11 feet straight lines in two sections


It is such a morning when I did not remember I have slept.
It is such another morning I woke with the fundamental question of survival.

An ambitious spider defied the norm,
spun a total length of 11 feet, in two sections, aiming to build large, yet exhausted.

I questioned again,
why do I art?

It would be selfish to work for the primitive satisfaction of hands and mind.
It would be blind to work for the earthly substance.
It would be forgetful to work for the celestial elevation.
why do I art?

Does one must breathe when a respiratory system was given?
Does one must fight or fear when a sensation of death is near?
Is free will as free as one assume, without obligation to a reason of survival?

Did the ambitious spider spin for a meal
or
for her experiments of new ways to spin?

Her adventurous 11 feet straight lines in two sections most likely failed the supper,
yet achieved a recognizable hell of useless admiration from an equally impractical artist.


Saturday, August 18, 2012

First week in Montalvo

There is magic power pass midnight.
Muse comes in contact when liver goes into detox.

My first week in Montalvo Arts Center:
mountains
Saratoga
California.
Music
Food
global initiatives
indefinable.

Under the 4 windows
I read ink paintings,
observe polarities,
fight for a reason to be me.

Wings flung open late at night,
resistance dissolved.
Tomorrow, we will battle again.


Eden and I had a conversation on the difficulty times in our 30s.
Out of the presumptuous, not yet reclaim oneself,
I too feel like a snake having a hard time shedding her old skin.

Identity butchers the spirit.

We stayed late and danced.