half dreaming half awake explores the predominantly online relationship I have with my family as a first-generation immigrant living alone in a different country. Digital platforms—video calls, screenshots, shared photo albums—mediate these connections and allow me to partake in celebrations. Through laser etchings, I seek to memorialise these intimate, shared moments. The stills record the isolating and unnatural experience of online contact through the angles, the patchiness, and the brief period where I am left with the household items as family members disappear offscreen.
Engraved with peonies, the flower associated with love and prosperity, the clear frame references the Feng Shui interior design practice of separating spaces with decorative panels, commonly seen in Taiwanese households. Situated inside the acrylic are double-sided zinc plates of my grandfather peeling and offering me a pomelo to ‘eat’ over video during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
half dreaming half awake was exhibited at the Hyatt Hotel Canberra from 11—12 September 2026 with fold projects as part of Canberra Art Biennial’s ARI BANAL(E), curated by sydenham international.
© Chin-Jie Melodie Liu 2026. All rights reserved.