Astronaut Project

I started this project in the mid-'90s. The "Astronaut" in my work is a symbolic construct of a transplanted, dislocated, and out-of-control subject in a state of uncertainty. The inspiration started from my childhood experience in Taiwan with my family watching the concurrent and parallel historical events in 1969 – the space landing on the moon and the war in Vietnam. Other inspirations were Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, my goldfish, David Bowie's Space Oddity, Pink Floyd's music videos, X-Files, Twilight Zone, John Cage and Chinese Philosophy, the city of Los Angeles, and everyday cross-cultural experiences. The "Chasing the Moon" and "The Astronaut" projects were a dialectical reflection of a multi-dimensional spectrum. "Home-Land" below was a participatory installation made of five interactive AV rocking chairs. The interrelatedness of image, movement, and sound/music is another of my long-time interests. In this experiential installation, the Astronaut's movement was randomly controlled by five participants' rocking chairs, creating an indeterminate video and sound composition. The Astronaut was perpetually challenged by competition, war, displacement, and the unsettled past, placing both the subject and the participants/viewers in a precarious state. The five rocking chairs with For Sale signs symbolized threats from the housing crisis in 2008-9, swaying the participants to and fro between comfort and insecurity; stability and uncertainty; home and land; here and there; past and future.

"Untitled I, II and III", 2008 – a triptych of three reflective 20"x30" laminated digital images on wood

"Home-Land" 2009 video document (click) solo show at The Barbara Walters Gallery in Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY

"Chasing the Moon" – Single-Channel Video from 2009 at The Barbara Walters Gallery in Sarah Lawrence College

"Untitled I, Untitled II and Astronaut" documentation from 1998 at the

Bakalar Gallery in MassArt, Boston and Triple Candie Gallery in 2003, NYC

"Float" from "Multiples and Editions vol. 2" in 2011 at the Connecticut College, CT

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