SOFTNESS AND THE OMINOUS, SIDE BY SIDE: IN CONVERSATION WITH SUN PEI MAO

A large part of my aesthetic comes from contemporary film and anime. Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube was essentially my childhood gateway into the world of horror. In this manga, the young female characters are drawn with such vividness and cuteness that their presence heightens the impact of the terrifying moments. This tension, where sweetness and horror coexist, left a deep impression on me. I also hope to bring these two extremes together in my own work, using their contrast as a way to understand the boundaries of my own aesthetic.

Taiwan is the place where I was born and raised. I am familiar with its people, landscapes, accents, and ways of life. Yet it is precisely because I know it so well that I sometimes struggle to clearly see the unique value of Taiwanese culture with my own eyes.Even so, I continue to paint scenes that leave a strong impression on me in everyday life. These images may feel ordinary and unremarkable to me, but they often receive responses far beyond what I expect. Through this contrast, I gradually realized that the power of the local may lie in its simplicity. The more familiar and commonplace a scene is to me, the more it reveals its irreplaceable cultural character to those who encounter it from the outside.

In recent years, I have depicted many female characters. The main reason is that this was a subject I rarely explored in the past. I wanted to challenge myself by painting themes I was less familiar with, because doing so helps me better understand my own tendencies and attributes as a painter, and allows me to move toward a direction that suits me more naturally. Most of the girls in my works are fictional, which relates to the fact that many of the artworks that inspire me also center on fictional characters. Perhaps one day, the figures I paint will gradually grow into themselves, and slowly develop stories that belong uniquely to them.

Light and color are often the very reasons I begin a new work. Through light and hue, we can sense the era of a place and recognize the qualities that define its atmosphere. To portray these characteristics, I usually start by exploring the light and color within the scene. In portrait photography, I sometimes notice that beyond using strong direct lighting, photographers will apply a layer of transparent gel on the model’s skin. This creates an intense, almost exaggerated shine, giving the figure a distinctly “futuristic” texture. That strange sense of temporal displacement fascinates me, and it is one of the aspects of image-making that I most enjoy engaging with.

I wanted to depict my own understanding of “sensuality” in a straightforward way. This led me to portray girls who are just beginning to feel desire and become aware of their attraction to others. Through their clothing and gestures, I introduce subtle elements that allow their youthful innocence to coexist with a gentle but unmistakable sense of eroticism.

I maintain different creative logics for each medium I work with. A drawing on paper remains a drawing on paper; it does not necessarily evolve into an oil painting. My oil paintings build on the experiences and decisions accumulated from previous paintings, and my ceramics follow a separate system and language of their own. When I want to have a relaxed day but still feel like making something, I choose to draw on paper. When I have a clear creative goal to accomplish, I turn to oil painting. And when an idea goes beyond the limits of a flat image and calls for a more physical or spatial expression, that is when I work with clay.

I paint those details that may seem like small, peripheral components of the scene because they make the overall image more convincing. To convince myself first, I have to carefully construct these elements that are often regarded as unimportant. Only then can the environment and atmosphere of the painting fully come together. Since most of my scenes are fictional, these details not only echo different cultural forms but also reflect my own aesthetic sensibilities.

I don’t actually know what emotions or interpretations viewers might take from my work. For me, every element in the image has its own reason for being there, even if explaining each one out loud might sound a bit absurd. In the end, these feelings mostly arise naturally during the creative process rather than from any deliberate intention.

There are still many directions I want to explore, and I’m gradually moving toward subjects that feel more instinctively my own. I hope to depict both real and fantastical themes through my own perspective and painterly language. Some of these images come from fragments of daily life, while others surface suddenly from deep within my mind. They feel both unfamiliar and intimate, like dreams waiting to take form.I’m not sure whether this kind of work holds meaning for viewers, but for me, spending a long time shaping a vague idea into something clear and complete is the most grounding sense of achievement. In the future, I hope that the characters, settings, and narratives in my work will develop a more unified language, allowing me to build a world that truly belongs to me.