Thorough Sense
The Poetics of Botanical Observation.
Artist Statement
The series Thorough Sense is a perceptual experiment mediated through the lens.
In our daily lives, Taiwan’s local fruits are among the most mundane presences. we are accustomed to defining them by taste, yet we seldom pause to truly gaze upon their form. Rooted in the philosophical inquiry into perception and cognition, this series employs the visual language of photography to guide viewers in re-acquainting themselves with objects so familiar they have become invisible.
The title Thorough Sense draws its inspiration from the “study of observation.” In the creative process, I deliberately abandoned the conventional logic of food photography, seeking instead the sense of estrangement hidden within structures, textures, and the interplay of light and shadow. When cross-sections, silhouettes, and minute details are magnified and reframed, tactile qualities are transmuted into pure visual signals. This “Thorough Sense” reveals what seems like an entirely different life form one we have never truly seen. It poses the question: can these visualities transcend physical constraints to reach the depths of consciousness?
What do we see when we truly set aside preconceived knowledge and let our senses directly encounter the thing-in-itself? Fruits and vegetables, as one of the oldest links to human civilization, carry symbolic meanings of abundance, nature, and the cycle of life. However, in the context of modern consumerism, their aesthetic value has long been diluted by a commercial gaze. I hope this body of work serves as an invitation. an invitation for the viewer to slow down and re-enter these commonplace shapes and colors with a near-alien eye, discovering that beauty is never a rarity, but rather a mode of gazing that we have simply forgotten.
