Artist Statement
I was hit by a car when I was seven, that same year I stepped on a jellyfish and fainted. When I was eight, I was hit by a car again... before my ninth birthday I was ran over by a motorcycle. When was nine, I was involved in a bus explosion and during those years in between my fourteenth year I had many sicknesses. When I was fifteen I tore my ACL in a basketball game and went under surgery. During the summer of my eighteenth birthday, I had trouble breathing due to an issues on my heart.
At first I did not understand why “me”. I did not want to admit that I had bad luck, the idea of bad luck made me think I could not shape and to challenge my so called fate or destiny. I always want to smile and have innocents, but after some of these incidents, I realized how naive it would be to think life is fluffy and always happy. All these accidents have made me stronger and to not depend on fortune or luck to never leave without backup plans and to always be cautious of my surroundings. But at the same time, I do not let these past experiences hinder me, I let the past be in the past. It took me nineteen years to realize what kind of influence my near death incidents have had on my life and thus, my art works.
While exploring more into my past, I never found a reason why I was having these accidents. It intrigued me, other than ‘bad luck’ it was nothing more. Although I do not like the idea of bad luck, I still wanted to blame something for my misfortunes. So I made a character of my misfortune into a thing called the “Shadow”. I portray my accidents caused by the shadow that follows me around every moment of my life and how I can’t escape from it. I display it not as a bad chi, but rather as something that has put me into such harsh experiences and taught me how to overcome each of them. At the same time the shadow thrives on the thought of me getting into such troublesome time.
