Linda Zhengová Maybe, Happiness Is…

Can you describe your research project?

In the project, I am preoccupied with the questions: What does happiness mean? What is the emblem of uttermost freedom? Can we even describe it in words or perhaps through photography? It started in May 2022 when I made a radical decision to move out of my studio in The Hague without necessarily knowing the reason behind it. I just knew that I didn’t feel happy. I moved to Amsterdam instead and nomadically transported myself to different places. These circumstances enabled me to open myself to novel energies and encounters. Let’s say affective encounters with strangers, pure moments… Since then, I have been transgressing geographical borders to search for happiness yet mingling on the thin line of sanity and madness. In my quest for joy, I present a contradiction, an intangible idea to reflect upon.

This body of work required me to intensively travel in the past two years, preventing me from ever reaching a comfort zone. Due to my unstable living situation, I learned how to reduce my life into a sports bag. I started my journey in Amsterdam and continued to many other European metropolises, ending up as far as Mexico City and Buenos Aires. My days were filled with unfamiliar, spontaneous, and surprising energies that were taken away from me (and most of us) in the past two years due to the pandemic.

Maybe, Happiness Is… is ultimately based on dialogue, be it the one with myself or strangers. In order to explore the idea of happiness, I need to travel and immerse myself in new environments as I don’t want to portray it in a singular way, instead, I strive for the most diverse approach possible. At the same time, by allowing myself to travel, I feel as if my ideas about happiness change accordingly, they get shaped by new experiences and environments that I temporarily occupy. All these different points of view and perceptions, begin to mark transformative moments and potential growth which I aim to capture within this body of work. It’s a two-way process for me and by collecting such a multitude of ideas, I also hope to give back to the people I meet.

Why have you chosen this topic?

I feel that the concept of happiness has preoccupied our minds since the start of the pandemic. People reconsidered their professions, relationships, and environments causing them to undergo severe life changes, either voluntarily or not. After the pandemic, we were all forced to live as if nothing happened and get back on track with our lives as before. We pretended that this two-year confinement filled with anxiety and insecurity, didn’t affect us. However, it did have a huge impact on us in various intensities and spheres, especially concerning our mental health. The rates of anxiety and depression disorder patients have never been higher and hence, the universal experience of happiness seems to have dropped radically. What is it then that we lack nowadays? How is it different from before? Or is happiness no longer the main pillar of existence?

What research methods do you use?

My research consists of personal diaristic entries of my and others’ definitions of happiness. The sentence always starts with “Maybe, happiness is…” and is then finished arbitrarily based on my impressions and feelings or the definitions that others shared with me through chance encounters. Alongside that, I compiled a reading list to accompany my research on the concept. Consisting of novels, and academic and hybrid texts, I draw inspiration from Adlerian psychology, photographic theories, and existential contemplations from various authors to formulate my own writing on freedom, vulnerability, and happiness; and the role of photography in all aspects.

In what way did your research affect your artistic practice?

Maybe, Happiness Is… taught me how to allow myself to fail and realize the importance of process instead of the final result. Also, I began to understand that fear and comfort zones are the ultimate blockages of creativity for me.

What are you hoping your research will result in, both personally and publicly?

I hope to present (in the form of a book) an intimate stream of consciousness, featuring all the shifts in perspectives, cultures, and their contradictions, transgressing all preconceived notions of what the concept of happiness could previously represent. Focusing on the tactile, vulnerable, and visceral aspects of the medium of photography, I hope to provide the reader with the freedom of interpretation without falling for a didactic narrative.

The purpose of this project is deep self-reflection — to allow me to look at myself better, with increasing truth while hoping that this deeply personal narrative can also resonate universally.