Tìshēn

Tìshēn (替身) (Stand-In) continues Old Library, a self-portrait series that draws on 19th-century supernatural imagery to look at memory, identity, and the tension between appearing and disappearing.

Until now I held one rule for this work: if a conceptual project needs a portrait, the body has to be mine, because only I know every intention behind it. For this series I broke that rule. My roommate, Theo, sits in my place while I direct him from behind the camera.

Spirit photography depended on substitution. Living people posed as the dead, and sitters saw the faces they hoped to see. In Taiwanese folk belief, a Tìshēn (替身) is a substitute body that takes someone’s place so they can be released. Maybe, These images hold both ideas.