HuiHsuan Hsu was born in Kaohsiung and is currently based in Taichung. In 2015, she earned her practice-led PhD from the University of Leeds (UK), specializing in video art and photography. Her early practice focused on the act of “seeing,” examining how digital apparatuses, materiality, and time intersect within the rhythms of everyday life.

After years of working with digital media, Hsu has undergone a pivotal transition in her practice. This shift is not simply a change of medium but a migration of ideas—from the precise, choreographed nature of digital tools to the intuitive ritual of painting. In her current work, painting becomes a process of encoding self-security. Without prior sketches, she allows paint and oil to accumulate intuitively, navigating the canvas as if moving through fog, until memory-linked images gradually emerge.

Her works are titled as key scenes within a broader narrative, offering concrete yet poetic anchors within abstract compositions. These paintings function as drifting companions—sometimes intimate, sometimes distant—whispering to viewers about serendipitous encounters and conscious traces that exist beyond rational logic. Through this practice, Hsu seeks to cultivate a space where memory, lived experience, and the spiritual essence of media converge.

Can you tell us about your background and how you started your artistic journey?

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in 1982, I work and live in Taichung. In 2015, I earned my practice-led PhD from the School of Fine Art, Art History, and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds, UK, specializing in video art and photography. I served as an assistant professor in the Fine Arts Department at Tunghai University for nine years and I decided to resign for being a fulltime artist in 2025.

After many years of working with video art and photography, I have arrived at a pivotal moment in the evolution of my creative media. From 2020 to 2021, a defining period unfolded in my life. I went through a divorce, relocated, and—like many —found myself confined at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid this stillness, I transitioned from video and photography back to painting. This transition is deeply connected to the intrinsic properties of media, interwoven with my life experiences, and involves a migration of ideas within my personal creative practices. For me, engaging with digital tools is akin to a precise choreography, demanding meticulous attention and a restrained sensibility while maintaining clear, deliberate steps. Working from home created space for introspection. Emotions surged within me—raw, vivid, and unresolved. I no longer wished to process them through the calculated lens of photographic devices. At the same time, I was mentoring graduate students majoring in painting and found myself longing for deeper, more meaningful dialogue. So, I returned to the brush, allowing pigments to speak where words and images once had.

Painting represents a ritual of encoding my self-security. Through complex yet subtle abstract shapes, my personal life experiences are folded, accumulated, and preserved within the canvas’s space. My creative process begins with the intuitive application of paint and oil, free from prior planning or sketches—like exploring through a fog. I layer brushes repeatedly, developing space from a blank surface until affinities related to memory images gradually emerge. Only then do I find a moment to cease painting.

The meaningful titles of my works serve as key scenes in short stories, offering guidance and insight. These titles, concrete yet poetically rich, function as distant points on a spectrum of abstract shapes, as I strive to cultivate an imaginative realm of ambiguous interpretation. My paintings are like drifting, attentive companions—sometimes intimate and tender, at other times cold and distant. They whisper to contemporary viewers about the countless serendipitous encounters in life, the seemingly familiar narrative structures, and the cultural and conscious caches that exist beyond rational logic and knowledge.

What are the main themes or concepts you explore in your work?

Memories that dwell deep within, the resonance of visual similarities, mediated photographic imagery, and fragments from online video games—all have become the undercurrents that nourish my practice. These elements do not merely linger in the background; they often emerge as pivotal forces in the completion of my abstract paintings. 

I approach painting without preliminary sketches, guided instead by the immediacy of emotion, the flow of oil and color, and the forms that emerge before me. Each work is carried out in a single, uninterrupted stretch of time, pushing both body and mind to their limits. This process demands absolute focus and strict discipline, as I seek to complete the work in one continuous breath. In the midst of the painting process, there comes a moment—quiet yet profound—when a sense of familiarity reveals itself on the canvas. A visual echo, as if I have seen it before. When that moment arrives, I know the work has found its form, and the painting is ready to come to rest.

I have stories to tell but I am careful with the nearable intimacy of personal experiences. Those intractable are hidden in the paintings by deliberately folding and stacking. At an appropriate time, these wrinkles would be delicately ironed and unfolded. Whether in paintings or photographs, I use abstract approach to depict the fragility and instability of human consciousness which are based on the cache memories deep in mind. I laboriously process the ever-growing images in the chamber of secrets, overlap, curl, distort, break them apart, and carefully burying them in the crevices, holes and folds I carve out. I use the most intricate strength to encrypt my insecurities.

How do you explore the relationship between personal experience and abstraction in your practice?

It wouldn’t be contentious to label my work as “abstract.” In the realm of my paintings, “abstract” exists first in my conscious inception. I eschew preliminary sketches. These paintings originate purely from my subconscious. I allow my body to be guided by my internal voice. Colors of oil paint are blended and diluted, while I, in almost a transcendental state, allow them to freely construct the lights and shadows of interwoven memories.

In the most general terms, images created by artists are visual symbols with expressive intent. When imbued with discernable characteristics, they enable viewers to make concrete associations. If I express an image in an intuitive, spontaneous, and corporeal manner, then it transcends the visual and beckons toward a spiritual essence. I believe that the figurative and the abstract are not diametrically opposed. Each remains open toward the other, mutable and fluid.

In my intuitive creative process, I became cognizant that the layers that emerge from my brush captured a sense of déjà vu. Although the genesis of inspiration for each work often remains enigmatic to me, I am always able to capture the shadows of what once was within gradually fading memories. This is evident in the specific titles of my works, such as “Arcades next to Piazza della Frutta,” “The Hibernating Silver,” “The Christmas Tree by the Sea” etc., that conjure concrete imagery in the viewers’ minds, though the artworks themselves express a diaphanous, abstract poetic. Even so, the disparity between the imagination and visual reality doesn’t affect the experience of the work. Subjective experiences, nostalgia for the past, or trivial imaginings and random daydreams are conjured forth in a state that cannot be clearly articulated. I believe a good work must transcend the limitations of the material world; even when I depict personal emotions and thoughts, authentic and accurate artistic expression ultimately resonates with our shared experience of human realities.

What challenges have you faced as an artist, and how have you overcome them?

I believe the challenges an artist faces stem from the art market and the public’s “cognition” of what art is. These challenges manifest tangibly as economic pressure and abstractly within the cultural environment. As an artist, I possess an ineffable desire to create—an urge as intense as the instinct to survive. Yet, being surrounded by external challenges, the true hurdle of being an artist is ensuring this desire does not diminish. My approach is to dedicate the vast majority of my time to creation. While creating, I do not contemplate the art market, the challenges, the definition of art, or the nature of culture. I face only myself, my materials, and my physical and mental state. Outside of creative hours, I meticulously handle the necessary administrative tasks of art management—archiving my works and refining my written statements. By the time I have truly done everything I believe an artist “should” do, it is time for me to go to sleep. Every artist has their own unique path. I am gradually learning that I do not need to over-reference or model myself after the experiences of others. Instead, I focus on steadying my own pace, centering my breath, and forging my own way forward.

What projects are you currently working on, and what can we expect from you in the future?

My painting practice does not follow specific series or projects, as I believe an artist should not produce “series” for the sake of it—that would make me feel as though I am merely duplicating myself. I aspire for every single piece of my work to be unique, each bearing a distinct title that is never repeated. Regardless of size, I invest the same level of effort and focus into every creation. I cannot guarantee to anyone what I will paint in the future; I can only say that I am someone who needs to paint every day. I will continue to produce work and, in doing so, continue to observe my own evolution.

Text and photo courtesy of HuiHsuan Hsu

Website: https://www.huihsuanhsu.com/
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