“I was surprised to discover that creative work rooted in Taiwanese culture and personal experience could cross cultural and geographical boundaries, touching people from different countries and backgrounds.”— Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang

TIME, DURATION, AND TRANSFORMATION

CNTRFLD. Your long-running series The Mother as a Creator spans more than two decades, documenting both your son’s growth and your own evolution as an artist. Looking back now, what has this sustained commitment revealed to you about time—not only as subject matter, but as a material within your practice?

AW. The works I created documenting time not only showed me the accumulation of growth and the trajectory of my efforts, but also made me appreciate the value of perseverance, the importance of love, and the power inherent in creation itself. However, this also made me more acutely aware of the cruelty of time. It flows relentlessly, and what I once thought was distant—aging—is now pressing in. I have been forced to confront a proposition I once refused to face: life will inevitably lead to aging, withering, and change, and how should I coexist with this irreversible flow of time? Therefore, starting in 2020, I embarked on three creative projects, all closely related to time. 

NEW BOOK / NEW CHAPTER

CNTRFLD. Your new book, What will be, will be, arrives at an especially meaningful moment in your career. What did the process of shaping this publication allow you to see about your work that perhaps years of making alone did not?

AW. Using a continuous series of family photographs spanning over 50 years as an exploration of female self-identity is quite rare in photographic art.

The entire book is like an evolutionary history of Taiwanese photography.

A microcosm of the evolution of Taiwanese women's self-awareness.

It has continuously evolved the unique creative form of collaboration with family members.

It turns out my parents were both very good at capturing fleeting moments; they left behind a vast and precious collection of images that are significant to their time.

A nested, ever-recurring pattern of life.

In an era dominated by selfies and AI, this is an honest work that goes against the trend.

Breaking down the boundaries between art and everyday life. Expanding the public significance of the private sphere.

This is not just a family photography book, but a profound exploration of women's life experiences, time, memories, and self-understanding; it responds to the individual and reflects the times. I hope to influence lives with my own.

FROM MOTHERHOOD TO AUTHORSHIP

CNTRFLD. When you began this body of work during your PhD at University of Brighton, motherhood was rarely centred in contemporary art discourse. Today, conversations around care, labour, and female authorship have become much more visible. How do you reflect on that shift?

AW. I respond with a comment shared by visual arts researcher Joanna Fu after attending my book launch. She wrote:

During the book launch, Artist Annie Hsiao-Ching Wang said, "Annie Wang hasn't changed; it's the times that have." Just as her work, “The Mother as a Creator”, resonates so widely internationally today, it's not only because of the work's maturity, but also because the current era is beginning to re-examine motherhood, aging, the body, and female subjectivity. In art history, many works have experienced the same fate: they haven't changed; it's the times that have caught up with them.

IDENTITY / TAIPEI / TRANSNATIONAL LENS

CNTRFLD. Born and raised in Taipei, and having lived and worked across Taiwan, the UK, and international art contexts, how has your understanding of identity evolved? Are there aspects of your work that you feel are deeply rooted in Taiwanese cultural experience, even when read globally?

AW. I grew up in a culture deeply rooted in traditional gender bias, where sons were valued more than daughters. From an early age, I often thought, “If only I had been a boy.” This thought led me on a journey to discover and understand my identity as a woman. As a young woman, I gradually moved from confusion about my gendered experience to actively asking: How can I become a woman who is treated equally and fairly? Along the way, I began to ask another question: How can I truly become a woman artist?

In search of answers, I gave up my career as an elementary school teacher and went to the United Kingdom—one of the important centres of feminism and women’s art—to conduct research. I wanted to understand the barriers Western women artists had overcome, and how they continued to move toward greater freedom and equality in the arts.

Over time, however, I came to realize that an individual’s power is limited. I therefore turned much of my energy back to Taiwan, drawing from my own cultural background and life experiences. The important slogan of second-wave feminism in the late 1960s and 1970s, “The Personal is Political,” gave me the courage and confidence to look deeply into my own experiences. Through my body, memories, emotions, and personal history, I began to reflect on the social environment and cultural structures that had deeply shaped me, as well as the choices and responses I made within them.

For me, art is not only a form of personal expression; it is also a way of starting from one’s own experience and engaging in dialogue with society. I originally sought to understand my own experience as a Taiwanese woman, but I was surprised to discover that creative work rooted in Taiwanese culture and personal experience could cross cultural and geographical boundaries, touching people from different countries and backgrounds.

MOTHERHOOD AFTER THE CHILD BECOMES ADULT

CNTRFLD. Much of The Mother as a Creator began through the intimate mother-child relationship. Now that your son has entered adulthood, how has your understanding of motherhood changed? Has the work also become, in some sense, about letting go?

AW. After having a child, motherhood becomes a lifelong commitment. But different stages present different challenges and lessons. As my son approached adulthood, letting go and encouraging his independence became crucial. The Mother as a Creator project was originally conceived to end after he reached adulthood. 

However, we both felt that the series had already achieved and surpassed its original purpose, and it was time to stop. Yet, the aspect of “Time” has gained even greater value due to 20 years of continuous shooting, so I wanted to continue until I were old, a point I discussed with my son. He said, "As long as I have time, I'm willing to continue shooting together." So, even after he became an adult and left home for school or work, we continued, though scheduling time together for shooting became increasingly difficult. 

In 2026, during his vacation, we finally shot a new work, The Mother as a Creator No. 13: Keep Going! This photograph, along with the previous 12, will be publicly exhibited for the first time at the Bristol Photo Festival in October 2026.