The 9th Winds of Artist in Residence 2009 Part 2

The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum conducts “Artist in Residence” program by inviting artists from Asian countries, in order to facilitate exchanges with Asia through artistic activities.

In the third period of the Residence Program, we invited Wei Leng Tay and Hsia Aihua for two months from January. Through various exchanges with the people in Fukuoka, they made artworks and did workshops.

These two artists lived in Fukuoka and developed new ideas of the works, by meeting and inspiring from the people and culture of Fukuoka. We hope you will enjoy their fresh expression created from the encounters in this exhibition.

Hsia Aihua
Born in Taiwan, 1973. Lives and works in Taipei.  Studied art at National Taiwan University of Arts and Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts. To participate in the residence program of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, she stayed in Fukuoka from 23 January to 25 March 2009.  Made the artwork “Between Dreams” and exchanged with the people in Fukuoka through the workshop “Let’s make a lacquer postcard!” and the open studio “Showing technique of lacquer paintings”.

Artist’s Statement
After experiencing “Artist-in-residence” several times, I feel as if I was in a dream. Through different cultural waves – repetition of moving from one place to another after the residency for a few months, I lose my own place to stay in reality as if I just lived in the dream. By inspiring atmosphere of the watery city and Japanese comic images in Fukuoka, I made lacquer paintings. The lacquer is always influenced by the natural state. Also, I have to spend lots of time to make the artwork like those who practice asceticism. Moving through dreams in the world, I may keep having the practice.

Wei Leng Tay 
Born in Singapore, 1978. Lives and works as freelance photographer in Hong Kong.  To participate in the residence program of the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, she stayed in Fukuoka from 13 January to 29 March 2009. Created the photograph series “Where do we go from here?” and exchanged with the people in Fukuoka through the workshop “Photo essay” with students of Hakata elementary school and the artist talk.

Artist’s Statement
In a very broad sense, I use my photography to examine how people around me live. Right now, my work focuses on domestic spaces because mine is important to me. It is where I feel safe and most comfortable. Looking at others in their private spaces allows me to understand them a little more, and make sense of what is around me. My photography sessions occur with moments of conversation, silence, and concentration. The conversations tell me what people want me to know. The silence sometimes tells me what I want to know. The environment relays other information. All this feeds my photography.

From the outside, I saw Macro-Japan – its politics, its economy, its culture. This residency has been an introduction to what it is to be Japanese, from the inside – traditions, attitudes, gestures, endurance, and history. It has shown me how these different conditions create expectations and contradictions within people’s lives, and how that coalesces with more modern and practical needs. The studio sessions have been my introduction to people, away from their environments and their comfort zones. In their homes, I have caught glimpses of their relationships, priorities, and lives lived.

The series is a reflection of this experience.