BIO

Julia (b. Taipei, Taiwan) is an interdisciplinary artist who has lived in seven cities across four continents and currently based on the unceded traditional territory of the Semiahmoo, Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations (also known as Surrey, BC). She is interested in archiving and working with possessions that present paradoxical realities, drawing from her experience as a nomadic person often situated between opposite cultural and conventional expectations.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I am presently engaged with object-lessons found within material culture, specifically ceramics, photography, and architecture. Having practised as an architect for a number of years prior to my current artistic inquiries into our roles as as simultaneous captives and makers of places and concepts, I question and find opportunities to redefine our conventional acceptance of moments, structures, and systems.

As a photographer, I collect neglected moments, specifically finding interest in the accidental, deliberate, and consequential acts of the human touch which parallels the inconsistencies in using analogue technology. As a ceramic artist, my investigations are derived from observing clay objects as time machines that tie us to our origins. Through imagining alternate past, parallel, and future lives of ceramic objects, I explore our tactile relationships with function, memory, and fiction vis-a-vis direct reference of found forms in my work.

By working methodically with both photography and ceramics, I seek to understand through my practice-based research the present activation of personal familiarity and future anticipation of objects and moments.

Student Award Recipient 2022