Artists
Photo Credit: NIU Chun-Chiang
LIEN Shih-Wei
LIEN Shih-Wei
| Location | USA / Los Angeles |
|---|---|
| Residency | 18th Street Arts Center |
| Year of the Grant | 2002 |
Artist Statement:
A craftsperson’s way of art making relies heavily on the specific materials or studio equipments. Participating in a residency program forced me to let go of the existing rules and begin my practice from the ‘intrinsic quality’ of art.
18th Street Arts Center is an established arts organization with professional exhibition spaces like the Highways Performance Space and Crazy Space. It also holds collaborative activities with the neighboring schools and communities, and there was a homey feel to the place while I was there. Although everyone was busy with their own works, we still came together at event openings to exchange ideas with each other. There were many artists working inter-disciplinarily here at 18th Street Arts Center. I had looked forward to getting to know more about this unfamiliar territory and to expand my own ways of thinking and art making since I had been working in a single medium.
Within a short period of time, I visited many different studios, galleries, and museums, and experienced the impact of multiculturalism. I often felt disoriented by the different groups of people I would encounter at the next street corner during my trips. I felt the push-and-pull, the blurred definition, and the fusion of different groups of people in this melting pot of a country. Each individual created works that most expressed his or her identity and cultural traits in the realm of arts, which had no boundaries. All of these cultural findings inspired me to think deeper about the intrinsic quality of things, as well as to reflect on the relationship between myself and the environment around me.
I attempted, for the first time in my life, to communicate with the audience through my body and my action. I had also discovered the multiple possibilities lying within a single material. These experiences slowly loosened up the one-and-only comfortable way of working in a specific space that I was familiar with. In addition, it was a unique experience observing the operations of a professional arts organization.