Artist statement
Nietzsche once wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?”
On the journey of artistic creation, I explore how pain and unexpressed anguish transform into the sustenance of life to redefine the inventive meaning of loss and sorrow. People retain these memories like a mark on the body to carry the scars from the past. I attempt to converse with my old myself to bid her farewell. Everyday objects like clothes―the metaphor of the clothes as our second skin ―preserve our memories and serve as a spiritual sustenance, and family photos―It is an artifact of time. These related to the bond between people and objects, presented in burnt or charred form, a visceral object. It is a traces of time and mark-stories created by incense which can be changed and destroyed to be reborn. They carry emotions and memories which are everlasting, pure and poetic. Through the ritual process of ashes, we bid farewell to the past, undergo healing and rediscover a new level of meaning in life.
如尼采在《查拉图斯特拉如是说》写道： “你必须想要把你自己在你自己的火里烧死：如果你不先烧成灰，你怎能希望成为新人！”
在艺术创作里，我探讨将苦痛与无法言说的悲伤转化为生命的养份，重新建构失落悲伤在生命的创造性意义。人们身上留下的这些记忆，如同一种身体印记，承载着过去那段时间的伤痕印迹。我尝试着与记忆里的我对话，与她告别。生活里的物品如衣服是人的第二层皮肤，她是保护着我们的记忆，是人的精神寄托、以及生活里的影像记录，一个存在过的时光证据。这些都关乎于人与物之间的关系，以香烧留下印迹的方式创作。那是一种有痕迹式的图画创作，可以不断改变、毁灭进而重生。那些有痕迹式图像带着情感与记忆，是永恒、真挚并有诗意的。经由烬燃的仪式，人们因告别而痊愈、因告别而重生，得以寻找另一层生命的意义。
Chong Yi Lin 