Have You Seen… (2023)

Site-specific Interactive Installation

The art installation is a site-specific and time-specific design to Bahen during the time of the final period, intending to fight against the special depressing, stressful and anxiety here solely by itself by providing a space for students to relax and take a breath. This site serves as the primary location for various science classes, including engineering, mathematics, computer science, and more.

 

I have collected dozens of photos from my friends as the starters, and the intention of the artwork is to let the students passing-by to bring their photos of pets to the artwork during the weeks where the installation intends to stay at the site, and gradually and eventually the viewers collectively interact and become members of the producer of this installation, with a huge board of photos of little animals in the end. This artwork intends to challenge the stereotype of art being the pedestal of aloofness and obscurity. It ought to be a vibrant and accessible expression intimately connected to the rhythms of everyday life. Instead of residing in an ivory tower, art should weave itself into the fabric of the mundane, resonating with the universal experiences, joys, and struggles that define our existence.

 

The inspiration specifically comes from a friend of mine who has been studying in this building quite a lot, and really really wants to put up photos of her cats everywhere in this building but didn’t actually do it. This artwork offers her and many other students a chance to show off their little animal friends.

More about the site: Personally, I've attended numerous math classes in this building over the past few years. The atmosphere has often been depressing, with dim lighting and a lack of aesthetic appeal. Personally but also shared among most students, the emotions associated with this building are usually in the direction of anxiety, stress, a sense of failure and suffocation, which are due to struggles over math for me personally. Interestingly, I've observed that many of my STEM peers do share very similar feelings about this place.