Solo Exhibition〈Freaky Freaky〉, 2024
In my solo exhibition 《Freaky Freaky》, I referenced the “freak shows” that flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries, focusing on the taboo surrounding the freak—those deemed unfortunate or aberrant for the happiness of the majority within collective society. Upon entering the exhibition, the viewer encounters an environment in which I, too, become a freak surrounded by numerous others. In this moment of inversion between minority and majority, I am positioned as the minority. The exhibition thus proposes a reversal of the unilateral hierarchy of gaze that defined historical freak shows.
For me, the individuals who appear in 〈Freak Show〉 (2018)—figures included in a crowd—serve as tools to question the grounds on which “normality” and “abnormality” are constructed. I reintroduce these figures not by their stage names but by their real names, using archival materials as a basis for dialogue. By closely observing and drawing their subtle hand gestures, bodily orientations, and glances captured in the images, I place them into new emotional and situational contexts, ultimately allowing them to be reborn as new portraits. Just as a work of art cannot be entirely separated from its maker, I believe that the essence of these portraits may belong to the real individuals represented, or perhaps just as much to the artist itself.
Chang and Eng Bunker were 19th-century conjoined twins from Thailand who immigrated to the United States and quickly gained fame. Their livers were fused and connected by a ligament at the sternum, drawing public curiosity as they entered show business and toured internationally. They married, had around twenty children, and later became wealthy landowners and slaveholders in the American South.
In my painting, fragmented imagery recalls their shared organs and hints at their many descendants as a faint crowd. Linear background elements reference the luxurious environments they inhabited. If the painting is seen as a body, the central empty space evokes the sternum that joined them, with the brothers standing within it as the focal figures.
Joseph Carey Merrick, known as the “Elephant Man,” was a 19th-century Englishman whose severe physical deformities—later suspected to be Proteus syndrome—caused parts of his face and body to enlarge and protrude. His condition drew the attention of a showman, leading to his exhibition in various sideshows. After his death, his remains were repeatedly bleached and displayed, making DNA analysis impossible. His skull deformity ultimately led to fatal neck dislocation.
In my painting, I depict the stark realities of his bodily condition alongside his portrait, reflecting the suffering he endured both in life and posthumously.
