A.

For my MFA thesis exhibition I made a video about two islands, Nauru and Taiwan.  Thus has become a springboard for a new set of projects base on similar ideas about island, recognition, and identity.  Recently, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to be isolated, physically and psychologically.

Yet, I think, it is easy to be pigeonholed right here: with the affinity toward islands and the fondess for the romanticism that associate with alienation and lonesomeness of the artist, I found it hard to make work base on these things alone.  They are good places to start, but not a good place to stop.

Loosely basing on these sentiments and thoughts, I started working on the following chapters in Los Angeles, fall of 2008.  One fiction and the other, a letter, both trying to articulate the ambiguous relationship we have with sense of value, knowledge, and the ambitious side in all of us.

Chapter 5, titled The Last Chapter of the Book, Also Conclusion in the Form of Stage Play, is a proposed play about four characters on board a 18th century European naval ship.  The play would start at the moment when they rooted a boatload of gems and diamond off an unknown island in the South Pacific Ocean, and en-route back home.  Before sailing, they must decide what they want to take back with them... in short, the longest chapter in the book is a contemplation about distance, absoluteness, and people playing their parts.

In chapter 4, Dear Louisa, I attempted to explain to a friend what I am thinking about: wanting to curate a themed exhibition titled Cousin, which would be constructed base on the ideas of distant connections, peripheral sights and thoughts, and the violence of taboos.  Perhaps, if am so lucky, this would one day be realized into an actual proposal for a show, but at the mean time, it is just a letter to a friend, sharing my incomplete thoughts, trying to be positive while whining, and staying fresh.

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The book, including all five chapters described above, is titled

Moon Won't Say Boo

is coming soon

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The Letter/A Rock/LA Couple /Past a Stupid/Main

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B.

Couple of things happened this summer, in no particular order.  I graduated from a master program and am experiencing post grad blue, but its no big deal because I just feel clichéd so I don’t think about it.  I was listening to a lot of Bob Dylan.  Especially to “Like a Rolling Stone” while I do my sit ups and push ups. I spent the whole summer away in Asia.  I was spending time with my grandparents, explaining to them what I am doing with my life, and watching cable tv.  By the time I watched The Hill Have Eyes 2 and Tokyo Drift (twice) I know my summer vacation is over and I should pick myself up again.   While traveling through Malaysia I made this and gave it to a friend, whom I really liked but the situation lend to no happy anything, at least on my part.  The feeling of afloat and self-loathing was supreme.  Also I went to Singapore to visit my sister and did an interview to teach art just for fun, and, unfortunately, I got it.  The decision of moving out of my long time home Los Angeles was overwhelming, but some what necessary, since I feel I have worn out my welcome there.

In one way or another, I envisioned these passages to be describing and documenting the strange time of my life which i was in the state-of-leaving, getting a real job for once, and finding out that, scary enough, am too comfortable as an American.

Chapter 2, titled, The One that Doesn’t Go Anywhere, it's an attempt to capture a particular moment in time in a specific location.  It seems that the world is presenting me with infinite possibility and direction; it was all too over bearing.   I need to focus on only a singular interval of time out of a vast network of consequences and causalities.  Then, I found a rock on my porch to deal with it all...

Then I got a parking ticket, which I explained in chapter 1 titled The Ticket.  It has brought out some unexpected insights into direction, time, and human presence.  I like to place this as the first chapter of the book because it sets up well the rest of the book, quite like a preface.   

Chapter 3, titled Juliet’s Window, is a soliloquy of a jealous lover named Benvolio while he awaits for answer by the window of his loved one.  Actually, he doen't even know if the girl is inside the house or not. Just imagine the iconic scene in Do Anything, instead of Peter Gabriel’s song In Your Eyes blasting from the boom-box on John Cusack’s shoulder, my protagonist is just mumbling on and on to himself. Rather pathetic, really.