Yu-Ching Wang: If I could stand in the sky...

“If I could stand in the sky, would I have more freedom?” This naïve question stems from Wang’s experience as an outsider, feeling constrained, restricted, and caught in an ambiguous, disorienting sense of identity. Through this question, she challenges the geographic borders and societal norms imposed by humans and think of the relationship between these invisible boundaries and the concept of freedom and belonging.

By engaging in absurd actions to escape human-imposed rules, she reflects on the struggles and helplessness of survival in a foreign environment. This also leads her to explore how these intangible borders shape one’s “identity.” In today’s turbulent global landscape, some people are forced to relocate, while others move by choice. But as human beings, do we truly have the freedom to choose where we belong?

The desire to exist anywhere on Earth seems natural. However, humans have divided the planet, drawn borders, established nations, and created social systems, seemingly to secure limited resources and protect freedom. Yet, at the same time, do these systems also restrict freedom? These curious, invisible “boundaries” not only shape our identities but also determine our access to mobility, resources, and rights. We wage wars and divide resources based on these distinctions, and the identities formed by these borders automatically categorize people into different hierarchies, limiting their freedom of movement.

Due to geopolitical conflicts and competing interests, Wang’s birthplace, Taiwan, is frequently erased from maps, an artificial human thing, rendering it, in some sense, an “invisible” country. Humanity not only divides physical space but also attempts to erase it from existence in their geopolitical games. As a Taiwanese person living abroad, she often faces questions about whether her country truly exists. In these moments, she feels as if she, too, has been erased from the world.

“As a resident of Earth, I am seemingly bound to follow these rules of the game. Yet, ironically, under the U.S. tax system, I am classified as an ‘alien*.’ This makes me wonder—if I could stand in the sky, would I be free from the constraints of human rules?”

If I could stand in the sky… is a multidisciplinary work that integrates performative action, photography, and spatial installation. As both artist and performer, she lays on the streets and lift her legs, creating an illusion from her perspective that she is successfully standing in the sky. Each fleeting moment is documented through photography, with each set consisting of two images: one showing her feet “standing” in the sky and the other capturing the absurdity of the act from an observer’s perspective. This juxtaposition highlights the contrast between the lightness of imagination and the weight of reality.

The installation is interactive, incorporating photographs and site-specific text interventions. Using pencils and chalk, she inscribes questions onto the exhibition space, prompting the audience’s engagement. As viewers interact with the space, the words gradually fade, mirroring the ease with which one’s presence can be erased in a foreign land, leaving no trace behind.

The performative actions take place in various locations across New York City and its surrounding areas, chosen for their personal significance to Wang and their alignment with her impressions and imagination of the city. The textual elements in the installation serve as inquiries, prompts, and connections between personal memories and locations. Through her body, actions, and a fusion of past experiences and imagination, she attempts to map her own existence.

• “An alien is any individual who is not a U.S. citizen or U.S. national.” — Definition from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The term “alien” also means “extraterrestrial.“