My friend Azizi Al Majid a.k.a Aji (@azizialmajid), an Indonesian artist would introduce me as an environmental artist but I can't completely state that claim. Aji is a smart ass, in a good way, check him out, also happy to make introductions. I asked him to work with me on a video in which we discuss long distance communication and the politics of time zones. In a meeting with British artist Ryan Gander understood my work as being "neo-conceptual". This was in 2004. I remember we were discussing a piece I was making that translated a small Sol Le Witt drawing into sound. So, I'm wondering if all of this makes me a "neo-conceptual environmental artist"?!
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At art school in London I started out making drawings considering the kinds of space it can occupy, as well as performances and installations that were motivated by chaos theory, the idea of "thinking out loud", a way of forming ideas into a reality, existing in a moment of emergence. My current practice is about the weirdness, contradictions and interconnections between personal experience and collective narratives, mostly enjoying the slippage between daily life and existential thought.

2016-2017 I made site-responsive multimedia installations in artist residency contexts focused on nature and its function within storytelling and the mindset that forms locality. These projects include "Natural Forces Emotional Measurements" in Bandung Indonesia and "Coastline Paradox" in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand. The installation "temple sea feng shui" about my hometown Sai Kung Hong Kong was first shown at Circuit Artist Film and Video's Phantom Topologies 2016.

In 2018 I went back to Indonesia to work with Gustaff Iskandar, Common Room Networks Foundation in Bandung, learning about the connection between environmental sustainability and Sundanese cultural practices. I recorded with gutteral choir Ensemble Tikoro reading the prologue of a traditional narrative prose about the origin of rice, written in Pegon (Sundanese phonetically translated into arabic characters) by a member of Kasepuhan Ciptagelar. I also collaborated artist Azizi Al Majid (Aji) and Ilham Nurwansah, a researcher of Sundanese writing. From these relationships, I most recently made a short video Hands Make Symbols (2019).

@turtlerealism, recent projects

I am currently based in Los Angeles and enjoying its environment! I can be reached at josettechiang@gmail.com. Thanks!