Song of Exile
Backlit print in hand made wooden light box, mix materials,
40.5×40.5×14 inch (103×103×36cm),
edition 2+1AP
2026

Song of Exile
Archival inkjet print on paper (Small)
21×20 inch (53x51cm),
edition of 9+2AP
2026

Through my experience as an art tutor, I frequently worked with teenagers who had immigrated to Canada with their parents or arrived as international students. I became fascinated by their efforts to integrate into an “alien” community at such a formative, vulnerable age—specifically, how the dislocation between fantasy and desire is shaped when intertwined with the process of growing up.

Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s Rococo masterpiece, The Swing, serves as the conceptual anchor for this work. From its inception, the piece was designed as a triple pun centered on the Chinese character for “Autumn” (秋): it appears in the Chinese word for “Swing”, in the original title of Song of Exile , and within the early autumn setting of the scene itself.

In English, however, the essence of “Autumn” vanishes from both the title and the word for “Swing.” This state of being “Lost in Translation” perfectly mirrors my inquiry: what is the lasting impact of the cultural confusion and dislocation experienced during one’s youth—that critical stage of learning and seeking knowledge?

The title is drawn from the 1990 film Song of Exile by director Ann Hui, rather than the traditional Cantonese opera, though the two remain inherently linked through their shared lineage of displacement and memory.

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