Still Smiling

Still Smiling
Digital Video
Height 5’ 3”

Luminous Deer
White Box Gallery
Portland, OR
June 4-25, 2010

Still Smiling is a video installation that captures a common phenomenon of social awkwardness–the polite smile–and focuses in on it, without extraneous factors.

Influenced by being in-between cultures, I often find myself in situations that I do not completely understand, but yet still must keep up appearances. Over the years, I have mastered this smile, and have successfully feigned full understanding to family members and other viewers alike. Although well-intentioned at first, Still Smiling exhibits the tension that inevitably appears as the muscle strain seeps through my face, and body language dissolves politeness into honesty.

Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/11959149

Displace

Displace
Sandpaper, Paint
72”x 12”

Luminous Deer
White Box Gallery
Portland, OR
June 4-25, 2010

Displace is a text piece that visualizes my interior reaction to a moment or a situation of social awkwardness. Displace arises from the words, “space” and “place” and plays upon how language occupies both.

The most poignant example in my life is a family dinner. All at once, family members will talk to each other in Taiwanese, address the waiters in Cantonese, discuss money (and other private affairs) in Thai, and then attempt to include the kids in English, as a good-natured gesture. Despite the intentions, I often feel confused, awkward, and overwhelmed by the multitude of inaccessible conversation swirling around me.

I feel displaced a level below my family, unable to understand all the nuances because my Mandarin skills are not on par with the rest of my family.
Displace is the visual representative of those feelings–the word ‘Displace’ has been sanded into the wall–it does not appear on the same surface level as other pieces in the gallery, but must fend for itself, sanded into the wall.

Question Number Nine

Question Number Nine
Series of Five Digital Prints
22”x 30”
March 2010

This series of portraits explores the categorizations of people– judgements and assumptions made that were only skin-deep. The project’s name comes from question number nine on the 2010 census – “What is person 1’s race?” Every person photographed experienced an awkward situation about their race or ethnic group because of a snap judgement based on their appearances alone. Through this series of portraits, custom-made t-shirts correct any stereotypes that might be made, avoiding awkwardness and pre-judgement (almost) altogether. People are categorized by what they are not–and for once, it makes life simpler.

Special thanks to Thomas Martinez for help with lighting and photography.

Copy Cat

MeowMeow Presents Copy Cat
Collaboration with Liz Bayan
Digital Video, 1,152 Plastic Cats, Vintage Furniture
Variable

Copy Cat
John Ross Plaza Studio
Portland, OR
March 4, 2010

With the insemination of computers and the internet into our daily lives, the way we view ownership has been slowly changing. When the printing press was introduced and information was available, for the first time, people were no longer dependent on authority to educate themselves. As such, not only was the common person now literate, people began writing and taking credit for their creative endeavors.

Now we see something very much similar happening. The digital age has created a new sense of ownership. With the availability of handheld cameras, web cams and cell phones with cameras, the common person, has the means of creating. Video work is not longer solely in the hands of a select few. Anybody, anywhere can pick up a camera and film something. We are seeing a familiar trend in information insemination. And in fact, in information multiplicity.

Special thanks to Andrew Parnell for help with producing signs and packaging.

I took a nap, instead of thinking conceptually.

I took a nap, instead of thinking conceptually.
Collaboration with Liz Bayan
Text installation, Vinyl, Digital Prints
Variable

Edge Gallery
Portland, OR
January 18, 2010-February 26, 2010

You know you have done it. We have.

With 77 days in each term, we knew most of these days have and will be spent doing things other than thinking about a project. Some may simply call this procrastination.

We like to think of it more as a way of life. We all have those moments when concentration just isn’t possible, no matter how hard you try or how impending that deadline. We all have to struggle through that block one way or another.

On occasion, we like to take naps instead of thinking conceptually.

Fill out your own at http://toastandtea.org/nap/

Luminous Deer

Luminous Deer
Bachelor of Fine Arts Digital Arts 2010 Identity
September 2009-June 2010

For my Bachelor of Fine Arts year, I designed the identity for the class. Using deer antlers and neon lights as my inspiration, I went on to create a logo that referenced the White Stag on the roof of the building.

The Luminous Deer brand collateral includes a website, t-shirts, postcards, final show poster and various vinyl signage. Additionally, I designed and typeset the Bachelor of Fine Arts catalog, which showcases the work of thirteen artists who relocated to Portland for a fifth year of undergraduate study devoted entirely to the research and development of their terminal project.