Pin Chun Kuo is taking a polaroid a day till the world ends
Kuo Pin Chun is a visual artist from Taiwan. Her works include installations, performances, videos, and photography. She is documenting life up to the end of the world in her daily polaroid series that ask a lot of questions.
How long have you been taking your instant photographs? How did you start out? How did this year-long project develop?
“Before the end of the world”
A range of eschatological beliefs that the world would end on 21 December 2012. To greet dooms-day, I started to record daily events. Since January 1st 2012, I have had my photograph taken with a Polaroid camera, a proof of my existence.
However, when the supposed Dooms' Day arrived, the world was not yet doomed.
"Every Step Towards Death"
I've been living with the death countdown clock since the day I made up my mind to be an artist. All of the people around me keep telling me that artists are never recognized until after they're dead. So I will, every day, take self-portraits with a Polaroid camera to record my life, until the day I die.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it was kind of doomsday for me, it’s a coincidence with my Polaroid project.
How do you manage to never run out of ideas? Your recent work remains as fascinating as your first polaroids!
I can’t find a reason to stop my “Before the end of the world” Polaroid project, so I just keep doing it.
Does your other work differ in principle from your instant work?
The principles of my art always have a similar core value. I see my work as a social experiment which throws hypothetical questions into the world, and I hope to verify whether my hypothesis is true through the feedback of the audience on my work.
So your work is like some kind of a diary. Was there a day when you really didn't wanna take a picture or didn't feel like you would manage?
Of course sometimes I feel too lazy to take pictures, but I will force myself. There's no exception even when I'm having a high fever. During Covid-19 pandemic, I kept taking pictures when I was self-isolating at home. After 10 years, it might be very interesting to look back at those photos I took during the quarantine.
Why did you choose instant photographs for this daily work?
Polaroid fade over time, which means my proof in documenting the world before it ends will faint as well. The idea of images will disappear, very suitable for the world's end, and this is why I choose to use Polaroid.
What is your dream project? Would you consider publishing a diary book of your photographs?
I wish I could one day show all the Polaroids at once in a space that I imagine would help to make it extraordinary.
Of course, I hope they can be published in a diary book, and the book should also be amazingly thick like a brick.
pinchun7.wixsite.com/pinchunkuo
https://www.instagram.com/pin_chun7