Interview and Article by Nancy Nien-Cheng Wu and Lin Chi-En
 
After moving to Kaohsiung for junior high school, Lin Pei-Ying deepened her connection to the city while studying at the Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art in National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU). There, she developed a particular fascination with the historical Yancheng district, immersing herself in its history, culture, and daily rhythms. Through her pen and brush, Lin captures not only the physical essence of such local communities and aging architecture but also the psychological landscapes of her subjects, particularly women. This sensitivity has expanded her artistic vision to explore multiple dimensions of life through her work.
 
Lin's creative practice is grounded in immersive fieldwork and community dialogue. This profile traces her evolution from individual artist to community collaborator, revealing how she has increasingly used her artistic practice to engage with pressing social issues.

Intuition in Pink
Lin Pei-ying's artwork draws viewers into a world of gentle ambiguity, where her subjects drift through pristine blank spaces. Through her masterful use of negative space, her flowing forms invite viewers to embark on their own imaginative journey within each piece. Art clearly serves as a medium for her emotions, with each stroke of paint or pencil capturing fleeting moods and ethereal atmospheres.
 
Initially reluctant to embrace pink, dismissing it as stereotypically feminine, Lin later found herself instinctively drawn to the color during her creative process. This intuitive shift is evident in her exploration of reds—moving from the intense crimson of Fangjian (房間), through the delicate pink hues of Yingse (瑩色), to the interplay of pale scarlet and rich maroon in Naodong (腦洞).

Beauty and Decay: Working in Forgotten Spaces
 
Other works, such as Lin's Chao Meili (超美麗, 2017), clearly embody Lin's deep fascination with history and community storytelling. This interest took shape through her collaboration with cultural worker Li I-Chih on the book Harbor Life: Yancheng District (港都人生：鹽埕市井). During this project, she connected with Daniel ChengHan Chiu, founder of the cultural hub 3080s Apartment, whose family history would shape her next creative direction.
 
In particular, Lin found herself drawn to the rich story of Chiu's grandmother's former wedding dress store, the Zheng-Mei Bridal Salon (正美禮服). Inspired by this glimpse into the neighborhood's past, she initiated an artist residency at 3080s Apartment. The project soon evolved into a community endeavor, with local shopkeepers contributing materials, sharing their personal histories through interviews, and opening their basement spaces for collaborative art projects. Lin immersed herself fully in the neighborhood's rhythms, taking up temporary residence in the area and conducting in-depth interviews with Chiu's mother. These experiences became the foundation for a compelling chapter about the bridal salon featured in Harbor Life: Yancheng District.
 
"My work tends to be more feminine," Lin reflects, a quality that resonated with the atmosphere of the former wedding dress store. In the basement's atmospheric darkness, Lin worked with found objects that spoke of bygone days—vintage wedding gowns, delicate beaded necklaces, strands of pearls, and silent mannequins. "The store held many beautiful old wedding dresses," she recalls, but rather than simply celebrate their beauty, she introduced small insects—spiders and flies—into her work. This juxtaposition was inspired by writer Eileen Chang's sharp observation: "Life is an exquisite gown riddled with lice."
 
The wedding gowns became powerful symbols within 3080s Apartment's layered history, creating a haunting scene that captured both joy and sorrow amid the building's shadowy spaces. Through this interplay of found objects and space, Lin discovered how material textures and creative intuition could transform a site's memories into art.

Drawing from Within
 
Lin's creative practice extends far beyond individual studio work into her extensive collaborations with others. Her approach to drawing—grounded in sensitivity and intuition or what she terms "drawing rooted in sensibility" (感性素描)—has found meaningful applications in working with social welfare agencies and organizations across Kaohsiung City.
 
Among her many partnerships with social welfare groups, Lin leads art workshops for patients at Kaohsiung Municipal Kai-Syuan Psychiatric Hospital and the Association for Mental Illness and Rehabilitation of Kaohsiung. These collaborations evolved from a project called "Art Class for Adults," which began as a simple series of illustrations, projects, and workshops. It wasn't until curator Clio Yu-cheng Hung encouraged Lin to develop and teach a creative workshop that she discovered a new direction for her practice. "Psychologists usually communicate through language, while I can translate experiences into images," Lin explains. She realized this visual communication is a unique strength artists can leverage in such settings.
 
When discussing her practice, Lin draws an important distinction between drawing and ink wash painting. "Drawing is a Western technique focused on precise light and shadow—a rational science," she explains. "It differs from ink wash painting, which pursues the expressive, textual qualities of brush and ink." This understanding shapes what Lin calls her "drawing rooted in sensibility"—an approach that captures mental images while breaking free from traditional drawing conventions.
 
So when Kaohsiung First Community College asked her to teach Urban Sketching after seeing Lin's portrayals of Yancheng District residents, Lin, instead, proposed a course exploring her approach to "drawing rooted in sensibility." She felt that rather than focusing on external landscapes, it would be more meaningful to help people engage in self-dialogue through art. "Mastering expression is a question of technique, but my approach to drawing is a question of perception and sensitivity," Lin explains. "For me, I may quickly sketch a drawing in ongoing fragments and ideas. They don't need to be defined, but they have the potential to become complete works." Through this approach, drawing becomes both painterly and poetic, moving beyond objective observation to deeper personal interpretation.

The course was well received and led to more meaningful, longer-term engagement. "In the past, my community workshops were relatively short-term," she reflects. "But after introducing courses based on “drawing rooted in sensibility”, there's been more interest in longer sessions—six, eight, or even ten weeks. Meeting for two hours each week allows us to develop ideas more fully and discover interesting possibilities together." According to Lin, such extended courses allow for the unpredictable interplay between self-reflection and dialogue in the classroom to take form and develop.

Art as Dialogue: Teaching in Healthcare Settings
Drawing rooted in sensibility demands honesty throughout the creative process. As Lin explains, artists need only be accountable to themselves, rather than worrying about others' opinions. This philosophy proved especially valuable in her work with diverse student populations.
 
In 2020, Lin developed a special art course I am so lonely (我好寂寞啊) focusing on personal expression and connection for patients at Kaohsiung Municipal Kai-Syuan Psychiatric Hospital's outpatient center. The participants, who were in recovery and undergoing long-term treatment, were just as any other students Lin had worked with, though some faced additional challenges in the reintegration process. "The outpatient treatment center acts as a bridge back into everyday society," Lin notes. "Sometimes crossing that bridge is easy for these patients, but other times they might get stuck halfway."

Lin structured the course as a blend of painting, drawing, and theater, incorporating both direct artistic expression and storytelling through picture books. "Story books are primarily pictures and text. They may seem childish but in a very short space they are capable of discussing very deep and interesting topics," she explains. While patients used art to illustrate their feelings and thoughts, the stories provided a safe distance from which to explore difficult or painful experiences. Through this approach, participants could see their own experiences reflected in the narratives while engaging with the outside world.
 
The workshop proved transformative not only for the patients but also for Lin's artistic practice. She became particularly intrigued by how storytelling could create both intimacy and distance—a dynamic she explores through the spatial relationships between subjects in her work and the viewing distance she creates for her audience. This delicate balance of connection and space perhaps reflects the sensitivity of those who use art to document their life stories.

Gender, Place, and Artistic Voice
As a founding member of the Takao Renaissance Association, an influential non-governmental organization in Kaohsiung's place studies, Lin Pei-Ying has long been committed to documenting local history and culture. Her work began with intimate portraits of individual stories, as seen in her projects at 3080s Apartment, but has gradually expanded to examine broader social issues through curatorial practice.
 
In 2022, Lin collaborated with the Women's Center of the Kaohsiung Social Affairs Bureau on two significant initiatives: "Her Time, Her Power" (高雄女力時代) and "Her Journey" (高雄女路). Building on the Takao Renaissance Association's established work in local tour guide training, these projects broadened their scope to include exhibition curation and empowerment workshops, creating new platforms for knowledge production.
 
Her earlier outreach work with local culture and history primarily saw Lin acting as a part of larger professional arts and cultural organizations; however, these recent projects have created space for her individual artistic voice to emerge and flourish. This is particularly true do to the support of new policies prioritizing gender equity, which encourage further inclusion of women's perspectives into fundamental discussions of culture and history. Through this expansion of local cultural knowledge to include women's experiences and the intersection of gender and place, Lin has found territory where her artistic practice can truly thrive.

"These projects offer room for development where individual perspectives can truly emerge," Lin reflects. Looking back on her creative path, she recognizes how her distinctly feminine perspective has given her a unique lens on local culture. The "Her Journey" project, in particular, exposed Lin to diverse voices and viewpoints, revealing how gender inequality manifests in daily life. She noted how families often direct more resources and attention toward sons, while daughters may be discouraged from developing independence, instead being steered toward dependent or caregiving roles.
 
"The development of human subjectivity is crucial," Lin explains. "When someone isn't encouraged to become a complete, free, and independent person, they learn to place their expectations on others, creating many inequalities." These disparities surface in personal beliefs, societal expectations, and individual aspirations for the future.
 
Lin finds that examining local culture through women's experiences—whether as shop owners, managers, or wives entering new family structures—reveals previously overlooked perspectives. "These observations might make us uncomfortable or question why things are this way," she says. It is precisely these moments of reflection that capture her attention as an artist.

Expanding the Realm of the Artist
Lin's journey reveals how artists can evolve through constant exploration and questioning, moving from social awareness to active engagement. "I wouldn't label myself as a cultural or history worker because that's not how I'm hardwired," she explains. Instead, she collaborates with cultural and historical workers to harnesses art's power of visual thinking and catalyze change. Through sustained creative practice, self-reflection, and long-term collaborations, Lin transforms her environment while helping others see their world anew.