The Honey Moon

The Honeymoon was the first work I created after arriving in Australia. I painted the view of swallows outside the aeroplane window with only five tubes of oil paint I carried from Taiwan. The dreamy hues embodied the excitement and freshness I felt as a newcomer to Australia. The window frame and the birds were present as silhouettes through blank spaces, suggesting their absence as much as their presence.

 

Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto’s works, Seascapes and Theatres, have been an inspiration for me. In his work, time collapses into stillness, and presence is defined through absence. The Honeymoon also explored the emptiness within vision—the spaces that hold memory rather than image.

 

The Honeymoon established the foundation for what would later become a recurring element in my practice: the empty space as a metaphor for absence and the ephemeral. The swallows, as migratory birds, became a symbol of my new identity—an immigrant.