Background: Previous Practice and Visual Language
My practice has long been rooted in abstraction, working primarily with acrylic paint, yarn, and vibrant high chroma colours. These materials allowed me to develop a visual language that expresses emotional landscapes rather than descriptive scenes. The woven lines of yarn and the tactile surfaces of paint became extensions of my own cultural fragmentation vivid yet disconnected, colourful yet carrying a sense of distance.
The beginning of the journey/ Year:2025/ Medium:Acrylic on canvas/Dimensions:162cm x 130cm
Growing up in the city as someone with Indigenous heritage, I experienced culture not through direct immersion but through stories, sounds, colours, and traces. This shaped my interest in reconstructing memory through materials. My early works sought to translate cultural roots into abstract gestures, using colour to express longing, and texture to embody inherited knowledge. Over time, these materials formed a foundation for exploring the tensions between identity, place, and personal narrative.
The split-space of enunciation… the in-between space that carries the burden of the meaning of culture.
__ Homi K. Bhabha
Research Focus
This stage of my research focuses on the question of whether art can rebuild cultural connection when memory has become blurred by distance.
I aim to explore:
- How can I articulate the “in-between” space of belonging simultaneously to the city and the tribe?
- How might abstraction function as a form of narrative within a fluid state of identity?
- In non-traditional mediums such as moving image, can memory be reconstructed or reconfigured?
From the vantage point of the colonised… ‘research’ is probably one of the dirtiest words in the indigenous world’s vocabulary.
__ Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Why Moving Image?
Moving from painting and yarn-based work to moving image is not a shift in style, but a necessary progression shaped by the logic of my research.
Memory is never still—it flows, overlaps, dissolves, and reappears.
Video captures this instability far more effectively than any static form.
Colours that were once fixed on the canvas can now breathe, pulse, and move.
Brightness and saturation transform from pigment into light, becoming closer to the colours I remember.
Video also allows me to incorporate:
- the sounds of the city,
- shifting light and shadows,
- and a natural rhythm akin to breathing.
These are elements that painting cannot fully convey.
My cultural connection has always been a process of fragmentation, reconstruction, and continual searching—
the layering, blurring, and fragmentary nature of video aligns seamlessly with this state of identity.
Thus, moving image is not a new medium for me, but an extension of the abstract language that has always been central to my practice.
The challenge always is to demystify, to decolonize.
__ Linda Tuhiwai Smith
Description of the Video Work
The video consists of layered shots that alternate between abstract colour fields and subtle movements of light, shadow, and texture. Rather than presenting a literal narrative, the work builds an emotional environment where memory emerges through colour transitions and soft visual fragments. The pace is slow and rhythmic, echoing the way forgotten memories surface gradually and sometimes unexpectedly.
Colour remains central. High-chroma hues—once held in paint—now appear as moving washes, dissolving edges, and shifting gradients. These visual motions reflect the instability of identity shaped across places. At moments, the image feels like breathing; at others, like drifting between two cultural realities.
The sound is minimal or ambient, drawing attention to pauses and quietness. This calm tone contrasts with the brightness of the visuals, suggesting the internal negotiation between the bustling city and the quieter cultural echoes I hold.
Moving from painting and yarn-based work to moving image is not a shift in style, but a necessary progression shaped by the logic of my research.
Memory is never still—it flows, overlaps, dissolves, and reappears.
Video captures this instability far more effectively than any static form.
Colours that were once fixed on the canvas can now breathe, pulse, and move.
Brightness and saturation transform from pigment into light, becoming closer to the colours I remember.
Video also allows me to incorporate:
- the sounds of the city,
- shifting light and shadows,
- and a natural rhythm akin to breathing.
These are elements that painting cannot fully convey.
My cultural connection has always been a process of fragmentation, reconstruction, and continual searching—
the layering, blurring, and fragmentary nature of video aligns seamlessly with this state of identity.
Thus, moving image is not a new medium for me, but an extension of the abstract language that has always been central to my practice.
Reflection
Working with video has altered the way I think about memory. What I once tried to capture through static materials now moves with its own rhythm. I am learning that reclaiming Indigenous identity is not a return to a fixed origin but an ongoing rearrangement a continuous movement between what I know, what I inherit, and what I seek.
Through this project, abstraction becomes less about formal beauty and more about cultural storytelling. The moving image allows me to embody distance without erasing connection, and to hold contradictory feelings—belonging and displacement, clarity and ambiguity within a single work.
As I continue this research, I aim to deepen my exploration of how colour, movement, and material presence can articulate identities formed across multiple worlds.
References
Smith, L.T., 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 2nd ed. London: Zed Books.
Bhabha, H.K., 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.
About the Author
Shirley Lin is a Taiwanese artist currently studying MA Fine Art at UAL. Her practice explores Indigenous identity, memory, and the tension between urban upbringing and cultural heritage. Working across abstraction, high-chroma colour, and moving image, she investigates how materials and visual rhythm can reconstruct personal and cultural narratives.