Profile
 Colleen Chen, born on March 22, 2000, in Shanghai, China, is an interdisciplinary visual artist working with moving images, photography, game environments, and installation design. Through practices in visual storytelling and spatial experience, exploring how image, sound, and interactive media construct alternative ways of seeing and understanding everyday life. Works often draw on personal experience, employing observational and experimental approaches to reflect on the relationship between the individual and their environment.

Education
University of Auckland
Master of Fine Arts 
2025 - 2026

Employment
Remote Illustrator
UGLY (Shanghai) Advertising Co., Ltd. 
2024 - 2025

Primary Art Teacher
The Wonder Centre
2023
Skills
Narrative Development
Visual Storytelling
Graphic Design
Typography
2D Animation
Video Editing
Game Development (Unity, Blender)
Installation Art
Documentary Photography

Exhibitions
MADE IN A DAY
Silo 6
Auckland
2025

ELAM Graduation Show
Elam School of Fine Arts
Auckland
2025



Colleen  ChenArt Portfolio Work Collections 2019-2025 Email: wuyuflower@126.com

Project 01

Soundscape Installation Theatre: The Forest
(2025 - present)


This project explores narrative possibilities in new media art and the relationship between audiences and interactive storytelling.

The works span writing, moving-image, sound installation, and game development, transforming a fictional narrative into an immersive spatial experience.

In the exhibition, the gameplay recording was displayed on a 14-inch CRT television with headphones for an individual audio experience. Two speakers mounted on the exhibition wall continuously played an AI-generated male voice narrating the story from a first-person perspective.

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Produced with: Unity,  Blender, Adobe Photoshop


Narrative Text I: City and Forest

 A suffocating pain rises in his chest, forcing him to grip his collar. As he collapses onto the cold, rough ground from a sudden wave of intense dizziness, the hard sensation in his palm stirs memories of the past.



When he left home, he didn’t bring many things,just a bag of clothes and a necklace he had received from an elder in his family. The pendant was wooden, carried the scent of the tree it had once been. He remembered the elder who had given him this necklace once telling him a story,a tale from ancient times about towering trees that once reached toward the heavens, connecting earth and sky, bridging mortals and gods. He wondered,did the gods live atop those trees? So he found the tallest tree he could and climbed to the top but saw no trace of any gods.



The dry wind carried with it the roar of machinery, the dust, and the rusty scent of exposed steel bars from the skeletal frames of unfinished buildings, scattering the lingering traces of nature’s breath. The city’s skyscrapers stood at heights even the tallest trees could never rival. If one spoke of touching the heavens, he thought these urban colossi surely surpassed the old legends. Yet even up there, the traces of gods remained elusive.



However, the work at hand and the next meal mattered far more than gods to him now. Survival left no room for the myth from childhood. And when, after long hours of labour, he walked into the bustling crowds on the streets, sometimes felt as though an unknown force was propelling him forward,even with exhaustion weighing on his body, his legs still moved to a rhythm that seemed beyond his own will. It was in moments like these that he couldn’t help but wonder if there really was some invisible presence above the sky,observing his every step, manipulating him like a plaything, bearing down on him until his breath grew thinner and thinner?



In this city, he once met a traveler. The traveler said he was born and raised in another city, until one day he decided to see a different side of the world and left his home. From urban jungles to rural fields, then beyond, across ridges and open plains. Finally, when his journey ended and he returned home, he desperately found that the city was no longer the one in his memory. Everything had changed; nothing and no one remained as it once was. So he set out again, wandering from city to city, yet none could become his home. And so his footsteps never ceased.



"City is devouring people and their memories." Before setting off, the traveler said this: his next destination was a wilderness untouched by any city. Perhaps there, he might finally find a place to anchor his wandering soul.



The idea had seemed preposterous to him at the time - city being no living beast to gorge on human flesh. Yet what he'd shrugged off as nonsense ramblings now clung to him like a spectre's breath, whispering at the edges of his hearing.



The night sky reflects a murky neon crimson, and to him who is lying on the ground now, the surrounding buildings loom even more vertiginously, tilting as if to collapse upon him - like the closing maw of some living leviathan. Is the city truly devouring him? How can that be? These steel-and-concrete structures were the very antithesis of life itself. Yet, the large number of buildings blots out the sky, forming an endless, forest-like landscape. A inescapable labyrinth.



In his dazed state, time seems to accelerate at an unnatural pace, as if someone has pressed fast-forward. He feels his body being gradually digested and dissolved - first breaking into countless fleshy fragments, then finally melting into a pool of blood that seeped into the ground, merging with the bricks and mortar of the city walls. His once-human flesh will become nutrients sustaining the monstrous entity called 'the city,' fueling its growth until he has provided every last calorie of heat, vanishing completely from this world.



Simultaneously, amidst despair and agony, the last piece of his consciousness is carried away by the woody fragrance from a fallen pendant beside his face - back to that forest in his memory. There, he remains his pure self, still believes that one day he will find that giant tree where gods rested, climb to its crown, and speak face-to-face with those gods about the vistas he'd seen from rooftops higher than any tree in that other version of the world. Now lying on the leaf-strewn ground, he let insects scurry through the foliage beneath his weary body. The dappled sunlight filtering through the interlaced branches carries the warmth of a mother's embrace, while the chorus of chirping insects and rustling leaves composes nature's lullaby, granting him his long, long repose.



叙事 I：城市与森林
当他因一阵突如其来的强烈眩晕而躺倒在冰冷粗糙的地面上时，脑中浮现的是那片充满了泥土气息与虫鸣声的树林的样子。

胸腔传来的闷痛让他不由得紧揪着衣领，掌心之中的坚硬触感唤醒了他过往的记忆。在离家时他并没有带上太多东西，只有装着衣物的行李还有一串项链。项链的吊坠是木制的，散发着一股当它原本还是一颗树时的气味。他从家里的老人那儿得到这条项链时，听她说古时有参天的巨树可以连接天地、沟通人神。他想那神仙难道就住在树顶上？他便找了那棵最高的树爬到最顶，却没瞧见什么神仙的影子。

干燥的风将机器轰鸣声连带着尘土与未建成的楼房骨架间裸露钢筋的铁锈味一起裹挟而来，把来自自然的气息冲散。城市的高楼有着即使最高的树也无法比拟的高度，要论通天的能力他觉得还是城市里的高楼更胜一筹，可即使处在最接近天空的高度，也难以找到神仙的踪迹。其实比起神不神仙的，还是手头的活儿和明天的晚餐对现在的他来说更要紧，为了在生活的竞赛中获胜他已无心顾及那些儿时信以为真的古老传说。而当他结束长时间的劳作汇入街上熙攘的人流中，有时会感觉自己正在被一股力量推动着前行，即使身体疲惫不堪双腿也依旧遵循着某种不属于自身意志的频率进行摆动。每到这种时刻反倒让他觉得可能真的有某种东西在举头三尺之处注视着他，压迫的他喘不过气来。

他在这座城曾遇到过一个旅人。那旅人说自己在另一座城市中出生、长大，并在某一天决定去见识世界的另一种模样。从城市到乡田，再到山川与平原。当他结束自己的旅途准备归家之时，却发现那座城已不是记忆里的城，一切早已物是人非。他只得重新踏上旅途，从一座城到另一座城，但没有一处能成为他的归属，他的脚步也一直未曾停歇。

“城市是会吃人的。”那旅人在动身离开前如此说道，他的下一个目的地是不属于任何城市的荒原，他说或许在那儿能够寻得让漂泊的灵魂得以安置的地方。

说城市会吃人他当然是不信的，城市又不是什么野兽能活过来把人吞掉。他也就权当是一番胡言乱语，没过多久便将其忘却，可如今那句话却像鬼魅般萦绕于他的耳边挥之不去。

夜晚的天空反射出源自霓虹灯的暗红色，对于躺倒在地面的他而言周围的楼房变得更加高耸入云，好像正朝他倾倒，将他压迫，如同一个活生生的正在闭合的巨口。城市真的在吞噬自己，怎么会呢？由钢筋水泥浇筑而成的城市是离“生命”这一概念最远的东西。然而那些林立的高楼却像是一片无边无际的森林，将天空都遮蔽，形成了一个无法逃离的迷宫。

在恍惚中，时间犹如按下快速播放键般以无视自然法则的速度飞速流逝，他感觉到自己的身体好像正在被一点一点地消化融解，从被分解为无数的肉块，到最后成为一滩血水，渗入地面之下，融入楼房墙体内的一砖一瓦。他曾经作为人类的肉体将成为名为“城市”的怪兽维持活动机能的养分，让它的肉体能够继续茁壮成长，直至为它提供完最后一丝热量后彻底从世界上消失。

与此同时，在绝望与痛苦中，他的最后一丝意识被掉落于脸旁的坠饰所散发的木头香气带回到了记忆中的那片树林，在那里他还维持着儿时的样子，无忧无虑地肆意玩耍嬉戏，不被任何身外之物所侵扰。他相信终有一天他会找到那颗有神仙歇息的大树，爬到树顶，和那些神仙面对面地聊聊自己在另一种模样的世界中在比树还高的房子顶上看到的风景。他躺在落叶铺洒的地面，任由昆虫在他玩耍过后疲惫的身躯下的落叶堆中穿行，枝干交缠的间隙间洒下的点点阳光有着犹如母亲怀抱般的温暖，虫鸣声与树叶窸窣声奏响着自然的咏叹调，给予他漫长的安眠。


Gameplay Recording


Exhibition Record


Project Webpage


小红书


小红书

Project 02

Confinement,  Delusion  and The Fallen Flower
(2022-2024)


This project reflects on emotional experience during the pandemic and the process of female growth, exploring contemporary social issues and psychological states through storytelling and visual language.

The project began with a series of illustrations derived from memory and meditation, which serve as the conceptual foundation for narrative design and animation.

Two animated films were finally produced. Confinement (2021) uses the metaphor of a cocoon and a moth to express isolation, transformation, and longing for home. Delusion (2024) focuses on psychological illusion and self-perception under social pressure.

















Produced with: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Clip Studio Paint
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Confinement

About 24 days have passed since she realised that she is trapped in this closed and silent space. There is nothing here, and the only way she relied on to calculate time was to count the number of times the light leaked from the window at the upper right of the space. She doesn't know whether the light comes from nature or man-made objects. If the light is the illusion of the outside world disguised by cold and lifeless artifacts, she can only lament helplessly that she can only live on false hope even if she is trapped in this lonely and barren space; It would be great if the light is natural light, but it seems that there is no function for this place to let her go in and out. Even knowing that it is real natural light is useless. At most, it can only be a trace of comfort in her heart, but it is always better than being cheated by her sincerity, being cheated is like the moment when the candy that she had been looking forward to for a long time in her childhood tore open the package, it fell to the ground like a flying insect that can't predict its flight orbit.

She can't remember exactly when and why she was locked up. Perhaps it is because human beings have almost perished because of a disaster, and she is one of the individuals selected to survive. The empty and quiet environment is eating away at her senses. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she still retains her consciousness. In such an environment, all she can do is imagine and think. She looks at the light and shadow projected from the window onto the opposite wall. A moth sways into the light. 



"Moth. Maybe I am also a larva. Here is the pupa that wraps me. As long as I have experienced eclosion, this boring dream will end."



The moth flies for a while with its unique, unpredictable trajectory, then stops and doesn't move anymore. The whole space falls into silence again. She slowly closes her eyes. She begins to get bored with meaningless associations. This time, she chooses to become a part of space completely, become an insect in the pupa completely. 



"After all, insects don't think."



This is her last thought before her consciousness sinks into the chaos.



限阈


 自她意识到自己被困在这封闭且寂静的空间中已经过去了差不多24天。这里空无一物，她所依赖用于计算时间的方法也只有数着自空间右上方的窗口处时不时泄入的光亮的次数罢了。至于那光究竟是来自自然界的光还是人造物发出的光，她也无从知晓。如果那光是冰冷的、毫无生机的人造物所伪装出的外界的假象，她便只能无助哀叹自己即使已经被困在这寂寥贫瘠的空间中也只能凭借着虚假的希望度日；如果那光真是自然光那就再好不过，但她所在的地方貌似并没有供人出入的功能，即使知道那是真正的光也无济于事，顶多只能成为她心中的一丝慰藉罢了，只是总好过付出的真心被欺骗，就好像儿时期待了很久的糖果在撕开包装袋的那一刻如无法预测飞行轨道的飞虫般无情地落在地上那样令人感到不甘。

自己究竟是何时又是因为何种原因被关起来的她已然记不太清了，这空旷安静的环境正在蚕食着她的感官，好在她还多少保留有她的意识，处在这样的环境里她所能做的事也只有想象和思考了。她看着从那窗口处投射到对面墙壁上的光影，一只飞蛾跌跌撞撞地闯入她的眼帘，她百无聊赖地进行着无意义的联想：

“飞虫，也许我也是一只幼虫，这里是包裹住我的蛹，只要经历了羽化，这场无趣的梦境就将结束。”

那只飞蛾以那飞虫独有的无法预测的行动轨迹飞行了一阵随后停了下来之后再没动作，空间再次陷入了死寂。她缓缓闭上双眼，这次她选择成为空间中的一部分，彻底成为蛹中之虫。

“管她的，虫子又不会思考。”

这便是她的意识归于混沌前最后的想法。
Title: Confinement
Medium: Video
Time: 4min51s
Dimension: 1920px * 1080px
Year: 2022


Confinement (2022)

 Bilibili

Delusion

She doesn't want to wake up because she can't face the real world. She can't accept the reflection she saw in the bathroom mirror with empty, muddy eyes last week. In contrast, in this land of delusions that abandons all prejudices and rules, no one will judge or care about her. She doesn't want to be the strong one in the eyes of the public; she only wants to be the master of her world.



The colours here are not as pure as her ideal, but compared to the reality, she feels it is good, and she wants this moment to last forever if it is possible. The world outside there has too much chaos, too much bondage, too much anxiety. At least no mirrors here, so she has freedom and autonomy.



She could not fit into the atmosphere of those people wearing masks, on the stage constructed by lies, pleasing each other with false and flattering smiles to exchange for what they wanted. Even though she had tried to fit into the template that people admired, her clumsy and stupid nature would drag her down from the exquisite stage. Now, she is lost in hallucinations so that she no longer has to drag her tired body against the outside world with her flagging spirit.



"I am alone, always have been, and always will be." She speaks to herself.



The rampage of imagination gives her the confidence to become the creator of the world. When she tries to make her puppet, she can't find satisfactory materials to fill the cavity in the puppet's chest. So, she lowers her head and looks at her chest, not knowing when she can no longer feel her heartbeat; there is only a hole left in her body.




幻境


她不愿醒来，只因她大部分时间都无法面对现实世界，她不能接受上周从浴室镜中窥见的那有着空洞且浑浊不堪的双眼的倒影。相对的，在这抛弃一切成见与规则的狂想的国度，没有人来评判她也不会有人在意她。她不想做世人眼中的强者，她只想成为自己世界的主宰。

这里的颜色其实也并非如同理想般纯净无瑕，但与现实相比她觉得这里很好，可以的话她希望这一刻成为永恒。那边的世界太过纷乱嘈杂，充满了束缚与焦虑，至少她在这里可以得到自由和自主权。

人们都带着面具，在被谎言构筑的舞台上用虚假谄媚的笑容取悦彼此以换取各自所需，她融入不了这种氛围。即使她曾尽力贴合世人所推崇的模板可她那笨拙又愚直的天性也终将把她拽下那精美的虚幻舞台。她感到厌倦，在幻觉中沉沦使她不必再拖着自己疲惫的身躯以她那萎靡的精神去对抗外面的世界。

“我是孤身一人，一直如此，从今往后也会是这样。”她说。
想象力的暴走给予了她成为世界造物主的自信。当她尝试制作属于她自己的人偶时她却怎么也找不到令她满意的材料填进人偶的胸腔。于是她低头看向自己的胸口，不知何时她已无法感受到自身的心跳，那里所留下的只有一个空洞。



Title: Delusion
Medium: Video
Time: 3min
Dimension: 1920px * 1080px
Year: 2024


Delusion (2024)

Bilibili

The Fallen Flower

The girl runs, her long hair flowing like gauze behind her.

Her steps are like the shooting stars.

Her shadow, swaying on the asphalt, darts across the mottled walls. As long as she does not stop, she is the spirit of the wind, the embodiment of freedom and youth. All the noise of man-made machines, all the noise of other people, has nothing to do with her.



She runs happily, then something breaks into her vision.



There is a flower on the ground, a mass of red that fell from a branch into the road. It is so striking, so obtrusive, that the surroundings and herself all become dim because of that mass of red. She stops and stands still in front of the red. She lifts it from the dirt of the earth and stares at it entranced. At that moment, she forgets to run. She just wants to indulge in the magic of red.

As if enchanted by the siren's song, she wants to know all about the red, and to do so, she has to get closer, closer until she can smell the decay of the thing in her hands.



She is startled by the tingling sensation in her palms, black living things crawling out of the red.



Fear. Dismay.



It takes only a moment to fall from heaven into the abyss.



When the object falls to the ground, it produces an inaudible sound.

Like just waking up in a dream, she fixes her sight and looks down, and the red is no longer as gorgeous as it was at first sight. The dark spots on the red suggest corruption and death.



She resumes her steps, with a last disdainful glance at the temptation.



What awaits her next? A wonderful encounter or another seduction?



She runs, feeling the breeze against her face, like a newborn.


落花


 少女奔跑着，长发在她的身后如同轻纱般流动。

她迈步，身影如同流星一般。

她的影子，摇摇晃晃的映于柏油路上，迅速划过斑驳的围墙。只要她不停下脚步，她便是风的精灵，是自由的化身。一切的人造机器的轰鸣，世间的一切喧嚣都与她无关。

她愉快地奔跑着，有什么闯入了她的视野。

地上有一朵花，是自枝头掉落于道路中的一抹红色。那色彩太过惹眼，太过突兀，以至于周围的景色以及她自身相对于那抹红时都显得黯然失色。她停下脚步，静静伫足于那红色之前。她将它从污秽不堪的地面上救起，出神凝望。那一刻，她忘记了奔跑，她只想尽情沉溺于那红色所携带的魔力中。

如同被塞壬的妖歌蛊惑般，她想要知晓那抹红的全部，为此她需要凑近，再凑近，直到她能闻到那从手中之物传来的丝丝腐朽气息。

手心处传出的酥麻触感使她缓过了神，那是从红色中源源不断爬出的黑色活物。

惊讶、恐惧。

从天堂坠入深渊只需一瞬。

手中之物落地，产生的是微不可闻的濒死之声。

她如梦初醒，定眼再看时，那红色已全然没有了初见时的艳丽，红色上的点点深色暗示着腐败与凋零。

她重新迈开了脚步，在最后对诱惑之物送去轻蔑的一撇。

前方等待她的是美妙的邂逅或是又一次的蛊惑？

总之，她奔跑着，感受拂过脸颊的微风，犹如新生。


Project 03

Silent Dance
(2025)


A hand-drawn moving-image project inspired by the “Silent Disco” event among young people in Shanghai, exploring collective behaviour and performative urban culture.

This project was produced for MADE IN A DAY, a 24-hour group creation organised by postgraduate students at Elam School of Fine Arts. Works exhibited at Silo 6 from 28th to 31st August, 2025.


































































Produced with: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Clip Studio Paint
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INS Page

Video Documentation

小红书

小红书

Project 04

Between Frames of Daily Life
(2021)


This project explores memory, isolation, and emotional experience during the pandemic through moving-image, illustration, and poetry.















































Produced with: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro
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Fluttering Clothes (2021)

Fluttering Clothes another version (2021)

 B站： Fluttering Clothes (2021)

B站： Fluttering Clothes another version (2021)


Stir the Milk (2021)

Stir the Milk another version (2021)

B站： Stir the Milk (2021)

B站： Stir the Milk another version (2021)
Cat (2021)


B站： Cat (2021)

Cloudy Sky (2021)


B站： Cloudy Sky (2021)


Mum (2021)


B站： Mum (2021)

Work Title: Antagonistic Symbiosis
Medium: Video
Time: 1min7s
Dimension: 981px * 985px
Year: 2021


Antagonistic Symbiosis 拮抗共生 (2021)


B站： Antagonistic Symbiosis 拮抗共生 (2021)





There is no place to turn back



I'm on an isolated island





Every day, I open my eyes and look at the same ceiling



Brush teeth, wash face, comb hair,

and then boil a pot of water



This routine became a ritual

I had to perform every morning





The notion of time gradually faded from my consciousness          



I left the utopia of my inspiration








My life, my emptiness





I live in silence

and I feel the noise



I live in isolation

and I crave excitement



I am ordinary

yet I hate being boring



I want to sing

but my throat closes





Opposing forces

keep tearing at me



I am complete on the outside                                      

and chaotic on the inside


Estrangement, dissociation





I can be myself

I can be anyone else





The observed remains

the observer disappears





How do I establish my existence?                                  





I exist

in this moment



in this moment



Or not


I keep picturing my life



Is it a compulsive act?

Or is it subconscious?





And I shut myself up in a small space,

looking through a window into a finite world                      



Getting the required information

through a screen





Life is rich and colourful,

and boring and pale





In this way

I retreated into my own little world



lost in unreal memories

with the texture of old photographs



Here is my gentle home

my own private haven

Project 05

ART IS OUR WEAPON
(2020)


A collaborative project inspired by the novel Little Women. It explores female resilience and empowerment through poster design influenced by feminist artists.

Four posters with the Chinese slogan “艺术是我们的武器 (Art is Our Weapon) ” were finally printed and installed across the campus entrance, stairway, bus stop, and notice board, transforming the work into a temporary public intervention.















































































Produced with: Adobe Photoshop
3.1
3.2
3.3

Project 06

There are no facts, only interpretations.
(2019)


By referencing Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain (1917) and a quote from Nietzsche, this conceptual printmaking project reflects on the question “ What defines contemporary art?”  within the context of postmodern art.

Nietzsche’s quote “There are no facts, only interpretations.” was translated in Chinese “没有事实，只有诠释。” and overlapped on the figure of Fountain (1917).

The design was made into posters, postcards, and wristbands.












*Fountain (1917) marked a shift from skill-based aesthetic production to conceptual artistic practice. The artist became a question-raiser rather than a craftsman, while the meaning of art emerged through various interpretations.

Poster Design



















































Photos were taken in front of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
3.2
3.3

Postcard Design
Wristband Design
Exhibition Installation

Project 07

Common Life
(2019)


This documentary photography project explores the relationship between family, migration, and shared domestic space through a collaborative photographic process with my father.
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My father moved to New Zealand alone in 2014 to support our family. Two years later, I joined him, and we began living together in a crowded rental house shared with several other tenants.

Private space was limited, and communal areas such as the kitchen and bathroom were shared. Within this environment, my father and I gradually formed our own small living circle, separate from the rest of the household.

At the beginning, I handed the camera to my father and asked him to photograph my daily life. Apart from basic suggestions about framing and subjects, he was free to shoot intuitively.

Seeing myself through his photographs revealed an unfamiliar perspective of my own presence. In response, I decided to document the moments we spent together on his only weekly day off.

An orange peel placed on a windowsill evokes the well-known Chinese essay The Sight of Father's Back, in which a father buys oranges for his son, an image strongly associated with fatherhood in Chinese cultural memory.


Work Title: Lunch Making Record
Medium: Video
Time: 6min25s
Dimension: 720px * 404px
Year: 2019


Lunch Making Record, 2019


Bilibili

Project 08

Lifestyle
(2021)


This project explores the psychological impact of isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I drew inspiration from Giorgio Morandi’s painting. By depicting everyday objects in my room, the works reflect on the theme of belonging and identity.

The final presentation consists of five paintings depicting everyday items placed on corners, shelves, cabinets, and tables in my bedroom.

The works were arranged across two studio walls to recreate a space resembling my personal room. Compared with earlier experiments, the final paintings use a restrained colour palette and simplified forms, creating a calm and introspective atmosphere.



Figure 1
Title: Books and Table Lamp
Year: 2021
Medium: gouache on canvas
Dimension: 43cm x 44cm
Figure 2
Title: Laptop
Year: 2021
Medium: gouache on canvas
Dimension: 40cm x 50cm

Figure 3
Title: Bath Lotion and Shampoo
Year: 2021
Medium: gouache on canvas
Dimension: 27cm x 33cm

Figure 4
Title: Wash Supplies
Year: 2021
Medium: gouache on canvas
Dimension: 30cm x 30cm

Figure 5
Title: Bottles and a Few Sundries
Year: 2021
Medium: gouache on canvas
Dimension: 30cm x 40cm
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As a first-generation Chinese immigrant living in New Zealand, I often felt uncertain when navigating different cultural environments.



Being far from my hometown and family gradually created a sense of distance from my past life, while the pandemic further intensified feelings of isolation. This project emerged from my attempt to reconcile these contradictions and search for a sense of belonging.




























The first two pieces of digital drawing were inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles. I portrayed the personal space as a place of emotional refuge.

In my sketch practice, I studied the compositional approach of Michael Craig-Martin and began drawing the objects in my bedroom using clear contour lines and simplified perspectives.

Later, I redrew the scene on paper and applied colour using gouache. High-saturation colours and strong outlines were adopted, while preserving the three-dimensional presence of classical painting technique.
I then expanded the scale from paper drawings to canvas paintings, and explored both gouache and oil paint, comparing their visual effects.

As the practice progressed, the paintings shifted toward a flatter composition and more simplified shapes, while still referencing the natural colours of the objects.


Top Work Collections 2019-2025