Lucas Lai
PHOTO START I was born in Taipei and moved to New York with my family when I was six. As a kid I did a lot of drawings and paintings. When I was about 15, a family friend who was a photographer with a local newspaper showed me how to develop photos. I fell in love with photography and my parents bought me a second-hand enlarger. Our laundry room became my temporary darkroom. My mum worked with children with disabilities and my dad worked in marketing at Kodak. They are liberal people and not at all traditional, but when I went to Beijing in 2010 to work with Ai Weiwei, they were a bit worried and didn't want me to go.
GLAMOUR SHOTS I stayed in Beijing for 11 months. Before that, I lived a very different life in New York. I did design management at the Parsons School of Design. My first job was as a fashion assistant at Vanity Fair magazine. Then I became a photo editor at Interview, the magazine founded by Andy Warhol. I was in a very glamorous world, but after a year I realised it was totally senseless and wouldn't make me happier. Then, by chance, I met Calvin Klein's daughter and did interior decorating for her for two years before quitting New York to travel.
DEALING WITH LOSS The art project was Weiwei's photography retrospective. I was involved in everything from image printing to placement of the exhibits. In April 2011, a month before the show opened in Switzerland, he was arrested at Beijing airport while on his way to board a flight to Hong Kong. For the next month, we heard nothing about him. I felt sad and frustrated. It was very difficult for me because I had to fly to Switzerland two weeks later to oversee the exhibition. I started handwriting him letters saying I was worried about him and asking for his opinions on things about the show. Obviously he couldn't read them, but it was therapeutic for me. When I showed him the letters after his release, he teased me for being sentimental, which I am.
AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE Weiwei is a stoic man. He never appears to be worried about getting in trouble with the authorities. He's also very democratic about his work. There is a nice family feeling at the studio. What inspires me about him the most is the way he advocates a society in which people understand their roles as individuals, and know that if they take responsibility for themselves, something bigger may happen. As the exhibition continues its tour throughout Europe, I'm still overseeing the installations and openings, including a recent show at the Jeu de Paume museum, in Paris. I'll probably go back to Beijing this summer to work with him again, even though the entire operation at the studio has been scaled down and the whole vibe has changed. Before, there was an open, creative energy. The Chinese government is very good at making you feel uncertain. In the United States, you understand the consequences for breaking the rules. But in China, the rules are ambiguous and you never know what could happen. It puts you in a very difficult state of mind, especially if you do creative work. But still I'd like to go back because I agree with Weiwei's views about society. I see art as a vehicle for social change.
INTO THE DARK I'm currently an artist-in-residence at an arts centre in Burgundy. I applied to join last year after Weiwei was arrested. At the time, nobody knew how long he would be gone for. I arrived in France in September. My project is to construct a darkroom, from building a sink to outfitting the electricity. I raised US$3,000 through a website to launch the project. It was my own idea. I think digital photography is great but it doesn't allow for the spontaneity that occurs in the darkroom. The process of seeing an image emerge on a piece of paper is gone. For me, it's a crime to deprive people of a process that can profoundly shape the way we create images.
WHERE THE HEART IS I've also been creating sculptures recently. I just want to be able to continue making art before I die. For me, it's important to focus on the present. I plan for the future but don't worry about it. As an artist, you probably create your best work if you function that way. I also think it's useful to view the whole world as a global community. Where's my home? Wherever I am is my home. That allows me to experience a place for what it is.
