Shi Jin-Hua’s performance art works can be divided into two major categories – pen walking and measuring.

When he performs the action of “pen walking,” each pen and each stroke become the metaphor of human life as well as all what they have experienced. In these works of pen walking, he expresses the void situation we live in and the helplessness when we face the transmigration of life. Sometimes it is represented as an individual ceremony of repentance and inner poise, while sometimes it reveals the inner feelings.

As a patient of type 1 diabetes, Shi Jin-Hua lives a life greatly influenced by blood sugar control. It even becomes the way for him to survive, to know himself, and to know the outer environment. In the beginning, he was forced to measure the level of blood sugar, and he soon got tired of such a rational, objective, and scientific measurement. Therefore, he reversed and challenged the concept by transforming the process of measuring into the reference of different meanings. He uses the body as his tool and medium, adopting various non-traditional ways to take measurement. Through the absurd, non-standard, and non-objective way of measurement, he rebels the oppression of the system and questions the existence of the objective and the Subject.

Just like how carefully he controls his blood sugar every day, Shi Jin-Hua also combines the persistent exercise (walking) with religious practice and art. The same behavior and product can demonstrate different meanings and values as long as we change a perspective and attitude. For him, one action is possible to satisfy multiple purposes, while life and art can exist together.