I moved from China to America three years ago. The disconnection of familiar cultural context makes me more aware of my individuality. I feel the way for me to acclimate to a different culture is to first know more about my own culture and history that made me who I am today.

 

       As an artist, I’ve been very attentive to traditional and minority aesthetics in

Chinese culture, and I feel an urge to rejuvenate traditional art in the contemporary world. I try to find my language by discovering the essence of tradition and expressing my thoughts in a non-traditional way. In this case, I want to connect the past to the present, the East to the West.

 

       In this project, I was inspired by the Chan (Zen) in Chinese calligraphy. The three

ways of writing I used are the foundational motions in calligraphy art. They may seem

simplistic but there are many criteria to define whether it’s a good stroke or

not. Besides the skills required, I am more interested how these simple lines

become a media to truly feel and express myself, and also record a moment. It

can track your shiver, your pause, and even your breath. It’s like a poem with no

words. Writing these strokes becomes a ritual for me, it lets my mind fly out of

me and observe my heart. I’m learning about myself using a traditional

meditative way but composing something out of traditional standard of Chinese

art. It feels like continuing an unfinished letter that people have been written

throughout a long history. But in each stroke, without forming any character, I

am communicating with my ancestors, myself, the present moment and

the future.