Give us a rundown on you as an artist, your practises and what your on repeat music is!

Initially I was focusing on 3D and moving image, looking at the club environment as a way to provoke story-telling and skewer this cultural lens. But now I’ve sort of moved into another direction. Where I’ve taken up more influences on how Asian identity has evolved, taking a more mnemonic approach to identities and how that comes into play.

Overall, one aspect I focus on is rave culture and the other aspect is being Asian, then the third is looking a humour. Potentially even classism and masculinity. Lately I’ve been looking at the things that are ‘cute’, which reverses what I’ve previously looked at where were ‘threatening’. I’m curious as to how a particular brand of ‘cuteness’ can survive within Asia but does not within Australia. In particular mascots, in Japan, they are considered relaxing and cute to look at. But this doesn’t exactly translate in Australia.

I’ve been listening to Yeji a lot recently. Peggy Guo and Park Hyejin. Basically Korean House and it’s been such a good mind of music, really dreamy and upbeat enough for me to get things done but not so much that I get distracted.

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Of course, we cannot forget the conditions we are faced due to COVID-19. Has quarantine and this new lifestyle affected your practice in anyway?

I’m currently working part-time as a designer, so I’m constantly in front of the camera. During honours I spent days in front of the camera. Since primary, I’ve definitely had a love for things which were tactile and hand-based. And during the pandemic, I was just constantly looking at the computer and I just felt like I really needed a break and do something that’s a bit different, get my eyes off the computer. Ended up falling in love with print-making.

I was really influenced by a friend, Amy Ge. She’s a really cool Asian-Australian artist as well, creating these immaculate eraser stamps of insects and bugs. Her precision and technique is so beautiful and really encouraged me to go back in and explore print-making. And I’ve found love for it.

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I noticed one of your Instagram posts that details a raw and unfiltered statement of exhausted from productivity that many artists experience. I loved your words, “make it (art) for yourself, that way you learn to heal”. How did this revelation come about?

That came out from a really big struggle I’ve experienced this year with my art. I quit my job right at the start of COVID. That was when I wanted to fully commit to art as a freelancer by myself. I did received a lot of support from friends around me but it was just a struggle.

I was doing that really unhealthy, everyday mentality. It’s really good if you want to upskill quickly. But it’s not really good if you’re trying to be profitable or doing it for an audience. During that time I was felling a lot of pressure to gain a lot of capital and influence and it started to make me really really jaded and unhappy. I found that my art was hitting a brick as well. I was never really happy with what I was making. I would be happy for maybe 10 seconds after I’ve posted it, right after. Then the dopamine rush is gone.

I really needed to take a step back and sort of be like “ok, why am I doing this”. I acknowledge that I’m trying to become a professional artist, but it can’t be a bottom line. If you make from a place of hatred and envy, you’re just going to do acts which are not esteemable. Affecting your art as well.

Also a big influence as well was, I watched Kiki’s Delivery Service, and I was really relating to Kiki’s struggle. And she visits Ursula, and Ursula is like, “you need to take a break and learn to restore yourself”. And I was like, Kiki! I understand!

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You’ve had a recent group exhibition at Kudos recently, tell us about it! What was the major themes explored?

The exhibition was ORIGIN [PARALLELS] and was part of an ongoing series with the Origin group. Origin group was a bunch of media artists that I met and studied with in COFA, and expanded into this Sydney based group.

The whole ethos is that it’s a space where we could experiment and get people to test our works. We want to encourage people to be more experimental, more free and less precious with their 3D and interactive work. Everyone comes to an Interaction work and expects it to work perfectly every time but that’s not how you refine interactive work, you need to stress test it.

The theme was the all the works run in conjunction with another. The exhibition had a unified soundtrack that was made by Jordan East. He made soundbites and put them around the exhibition, so depending on what space you were in you were immersed in a different way. The other works will also respond to the sound as well. We drew a lot of inspiration from Team Lab. We had all these works that was next to each and running together, running in parallel.

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How was this experience?

Working with Kudos Gallery was the best way we could keep that and display this as emerging artists. Kudos was a really great resource as they were able bring together all these technology for us. Kieran and Audrey were so accommodating to us, they looked after us so well. Even though they told us they never had a show that was so tech-heavy.

They really rose to the occasion. And it’s really difficult for traditional galleries to run tech and that’s why I’m so grateful to Kudos because they could facilitate a show, which normally would not be able to go ahead. Totally grateful for all the work they’ve done.

Any words for the departing space of Kudos Gallery?

I’m really sad I discovered Kudos so late, because exhibiting with them made me realise how great a space it was. How important and encouraging it is as a space for young emerging artists.

I just want to say thank you, for all the hard work that has been put into it as well. Looking after all the artist coming out of UNSW too. The experience was phenomenal. I don’t think I’ll find anything like this anywhere else.

I’ll really miss the space.

To finish off, should there be any upcoming projects from you that we should be excited about?

I have a little artwork that’s coming out from a Zine in the UK, it’s part of this collection Zine called ‘Employee of the Month’. This is illustration based work.

At the moment I am working with Amy, creating artworks, exploring dreams and wishes. Not too sure if a show will come out of this but keep your eyes posted on Instagram.

I’ll be showing two pieces at Pari Ari. The first piece is a graphite sketch, and the second piece is to be completed.