White Terror #14, water color on paper mounted on wood panel, 5x7", 2013
the number represents the date the person was executed
White Terror Oil #1, oil on canvas, 30x40", 2013
Artist Statement:
Sixty five years have passed since the great massacre of 1947 and the following white terror period, during which thousands of innocent people were arrested, tortured, and murdered under political repression in Taiwan.
The few remaining photos of the dark history, as the history itself, are being forgotten, fading. Or worse, the images may have never really been seen and because of that never have been able to enter the collective consciousness of Taiwanese people. Ironically, images of generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, who was responsible for the massacre and the following political repression, have been highly familiar and iconic, mainly due to the deification movement led by his party after his death.
This series, White Terror, consists of two oil paintings(60 x 80”) and a set of small portraits done in watercolor(5” x 7” each. Paper mounted on wood panel with execution date burnt on the edge of the panel), all based on photographs of the victims of the great massacre of 1947 and the white terror period. The paintings are very pale and light, that they are almost blank at first glance, because I hoped they would reflect current status of these images in the society--fading from memory or never even having been seen. This body of work is about history, memory, and the relationship between power and imagery.
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