Erebus

Every family photo depicts a trace of the lives once lived. In Erebus, Artist Lee Chia Yu photographs some of his old family pictures as an attempt to explain the beginning of his existence, or “I”. The pictures document the world before “I” came into being and which “I” never took part in. For these reasons, the pictures hold the answer to the question “Why am I what I am?”
The artist has produced two framed copies of each family picture, one black and one white. Barely visible, the images demand some effort from viewers’ eyes and leave the rest of their uncertainties to the viewers’ own imaginations. Placed side by side, the black and white pictures are complementary and provide objective clues that disrupt our newborn imaginations.
While an ongoing process of conflict, elimination and support lies between the objective and subjective answers, the answer lies in neither but can be found in an abstract space resulting from collaboration