Better Places
更好的地方
2024, Pen on paper, 60×41.5cm (Single size, 11-piece collection)
你就要去更好的地方了！我經常聽到他們這樣說
"You are going to a better place!"I often heard them say this.
Better Places consists of eleven floor plans. The floor plans represent the houses I have lived in, each stamped with my personal name seal.
Better Places explores lost memories and migration. As a child, I moved frequently because of my parents’ work and their constant plans to migrate. Our home was always filled with floor plans from real estate agents, and their backs became my drawing paper. I often heard people around me say, “You’re going to a better place.” However, this constant relocation left me with a weak sense of belonging to any particular space.
When redrawing these houses from memory, I made many mistakes—some details are now completely gone. In Taiwan, corrections on official documents must be crossed out, rewritten, and stamped with one’s personal seal. I used the same gesture on my floor plans. The number of seals gradually decreases over time, and my current home (2024) bears none, symbolising the fading of memory.
《更好的地方》由十一件我過去所居住過的房屋平面圖組成，每張平面圖上都蓋了我的姓名印章。
這件作品探討了在遷徙中丟失的記憶。因為我父母工作與移民計畫的關係，我從小就很常搬家。我的家裡總是堆滿從房仲那裏拿來的房屋平面圖，而這些平面圖的背面空白處就成了我的畫紙。每次搬家，我經常會聽到身邊的親朋好友跟我說「你要去更好的地方了！」這句話成了這件作品的名字。即使我明白自己可能要去「更好的地方」，不斷的搬家仍然讓我無法對任何一處居所產生歸屬感。
當我憑靠記憶重製這些平面圖時，我犯了許多錯誤也遺忘了很多細節。面對這些錯誤，我並不是用立可白將他們塗掉，而是使用更正銀行或是正式文件的方式更正這些錯誤，在畫錯的部分蓋上姓名印章再將新的線條覆蓋在上面。
印章的數量隨著時間越進而減少，在我目前的家(2024)則是完全沒有印章，這體現了在時間洪流裡逐漸褪色的記憶。