Artist Statement

Despite having the understanding of suicide as an autonomous choice, digesting the news of suicide has still been a long process - Talking to some close friends of Chin, going back to Stockholm in Fall 2015 to bring some of her stuff to her old friends and to visit the house that they lived in, reuniting with an old friend of mine in France after 5 years exchanging thoughts about dead family members / friends, travelling around the world to look for alternatives from other people’s ways of living, going back to Hong Kong to develop Lighthouse with Brian… And then back to my own life asking questions, experimenting more (not just on an art level but more like way of living)... Even until today the quest is still going on, and I feel Lighthouse has been growing with my life.

From this point of view, Lighthouse is a highly personal piece. However, it has its public side.

Death is often a heavy topic for many and when it is brought up it is easy to focus on the sorrow which outshines other’s lives, or the great side of the deceased’s life is usually stressed while the discussion about death is avoided in a way. Thus, I would like to stress that life and death weigh equally in Lighthouse. Sometimes it seems hard to find a balance using arts to explore and express without romanticizing death / suicide. I hope to reveal that the struggles are real, not spectacles, though the environmental effects shall not be ignored. After going through so much with so many people, I believe performance in an intimate setting is a good medium for myself and the others to touch upon this topic and I would love to share the love that I have received from a lot of people and let love spread in this occasion. And developing Lighthouse differently from the backbone according to different settings of each private home takes this piece to another level and makes the process more fun!

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Stella Wing-yan Tsui
March 2017