Candy-Glazed Eyes of Haunted Machines (on-going)
My current work studies coin-operated rides, an entry point to understanding the illegible aesthetics of postcolonial countries and my family’s class position.
Trojan horses of sorts, the rides arrived in Taiwan in the form of Pikachu and Mickey Mouse characters from colonial powers and were maintained by invisible laborers such as my grandfather, whose home fiberglass and paint workshop likely poisoned our three family dogs. Over the years, the rides acquired layers of amateur makeup, the cuteness morphed into the absurd, tipping over into a kind of tragic humor.
The final work, a plastic makeshift circus, will be a visual study in “cursed” aesthetics, an internet phenomenon that captures the essence of kiddie rides, and the unstable Taiwanese identities.
Trojan horses of sorts, the rides arrived in Taiwan in the form of Pikachu and Mickey Mouse characters from colonial powers and were maintained by invisible laborers such as my grandfather, whose home fiberglass and paint workshop likely poisoned our three family dogs. Over the years, the rides acquired layers of amateur makeup, the cuteness morphed into the absurd, tipping over into a kind of tragic humor.
The final work, a plastic makeshift circus, will be a visual study in “cursed” aesthetics, an internet phenomenon that captures the essence of kiddie rides, and the unstable Taiwanese identities.
