DEAR DIARY

“ I used to write diaries. Now I face these memories and grow over time.”

Title：DEAR DIARY
Year：2016
Artist：Chen Ying Ju
Artist Statement：
Dear diary: Diary records daily feelings and is a mean to express mood. This animation narrates a story based on childhood experiences. The story is told twice in the work with two different narratives. The story firstly is told in a chronological narrative, recalling a childhood memory; the second part is the flashback of the prior one which of the paintings were torn. In addition to the animation, the artwork is presented by showing the overall producing process with hundreds of paintings and two artist's books.

The artist binded the original paintings into an “Unable open book” which indicates the artist was unwilling to unfold memories written in the diary. The cover of the book was made by elastic bands which symbolizes the family connections that intertwined with the memories and provides an impression of bandaging.

Later on, to review the memory, the artist destroyed the "Unable open book” and the process was presented in the flashback part. The artist tore the paintings that composed the prior part one by one. The seemingly destructive style of narration did not represent the destruction of memories. A small hand that was originally pulled away in the first part was reconnected with the mother due to the effect of flashback. The scene indicates that no matter what we have endured in our past, we should not forget our original intention.

Overall the two different appearances of the same story indicates that everything in our memory can have totally different interpretations through time and growth.

The original paintings which were torn during the making of the artwork are going to be made into recycled paper in 2017, and will be applied in a new series of printmaking works based on the same theme. The printmaking works will describe the artist's new sights after growing up.

Media：pencil, paper, video animation
Music：Chen Yu Jung - Rolling Waves
Special Thanks To IAA, my friends and family.