Minney Chiu

BFA New Media

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mjchiu
Instagram: @minney.chiu

ARTIST STATEMENT: Trauma is an emotional response to a horrid event that has long-term effects on the person experiencing it. However, for me, trauma is something that can act as the mitochondria of life, powering us, and luring us to places that we would never dare to go. I am drawn to many versions of trauma. Trauma that was given to us as children, passed down to us by the adults, and even the trauma we often don’t acknowledge or realize exists. However, there are few common denominators amongst them. Trauma lingers, trauma can create momentum, and trauma is weighted.

Through constant consumption of media, traumas have slowly become a novelty, with many viewers unable to turn away from the display of violence and injustice that is portrayed. With the usage of technology only growing, we as viewers are desensitized to an unending stream of bad news, stepping into quicksand, trivializing just how traumatized we’ve actually been. However, with all the darkness trauma brings, there is also growth after trauma. At some point, long in the future, we will be able to reflect on this terrible time and what it meant for us as individuals, communities, and even nations.

My work is an interactive installation that contains traditional and digital elements, which are physical watercolor paintings, projection, and sound. Each painting illustrates the effects of trauma and how it pushes and pulls the subject towards in different directions, influencing them to a path of unknown. With all of the installation elements combined, I invite the viewers to explore their own mental space and find their inner trauma that lingers in the back of their minds.