My career as a photographer changed its course ten years ago, from commercial to fine art photography, as I began to question the true meaning of 'beauty', the cultural perception of time, and the role of photography as a medium to explore such inquiries.
While working as a commercial photographer, I always kept an eye on the contemporary art world and often found incongruity between the conceptual and the visual. Artists with wonderful concepts seemed to fall short in materializing them and on the other hand, some artworks were visually pleasing but lacked substance. This observation led me to interrogate the relationship between aesthetic beauty, concept and the manifestation of these two aspects.
Aesthetic beauty, in particular, raised many questions for me given my experience in commercial photography. I have always thought of mainstream interpretations of 'beauty' to be a limited social construct signifying only a fraction of its true nature. Conversely, I believe in art's potential to embody a deeper kind of beauty that can evoke a subjective response that is both physical and emotional.
Moreover, I hoped to explore how photographs can exist as artistic objects that occupy physical space in a digital age where photography is often a mere tool for communicating data and information. Furthermore, I wondered how photographs could be 'timeless' within an increasingly fast-paced modern culture, and how it might be possible for photography to alter the way we perceive and feel the passage of time.
I am particularly inspired by the Chinese neo-Confucian idea of Li (理), which refers to a cosmic 'order' or 'reason' that governs systems and cycles in nature. Working in the rigid timeframes of a commercial environment obsessed with efficiency and productivity, I questioned what might be the natural cycle or lifespan of the creative force within myself. Prompted by this thought, I began my journey into a conceptual art practice to explore the perception of time attuned to Li, and to align my creative rhythm with the biological life cycle.
