I decided to apply to Chinese University's Fine Arts department and I finished a four-year degree there in 1989.

My studies included drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics - I got a taste of everything. After I graduated, I became a teaching assistant in the same department at Chinese University.

It was at that time that I began to make sculpture more seriously under the influence of sculptor Cheung Yee, who was then head of the department. He has been famous since the 60s in Hong Kong as a first-generation sculptor in the modern artform. I had the opportunity to study under him and be his assistant for almost three years. From Cheung Yee, I learned a great deal about three-dimensional art, especially woodcarving. After that I went to the United States for my Master's degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan from 1993-95.

My parents were supportive - at least they were not against it. They did have a few comments about my future career when I was young but when they realised that I'm really interested and serious, they encouraged me. When I went for my Master's in the US, my father even lent me money for the programme . . . and I still haven't returned it to him. He really supported me. He just likes that his son really enjoys what he is doing.

It was at Cranbrook that I began to question the foundational meaning of sculpture. I tried to figure out my own direction in sculpture creation. In the Inside/Out exhibit I have a piece about walking on two balls that I created during my final year at Cranbrook. It has great significance to me because it is from a period when I was really trying to understand what sculpture is.

Traditionally, the idea is that the sculptor takes a piece of material - it could be a piece of wood or marble or anything - and tries to input his own energy into this material. It could be in terms of physical labour work or spiritual concepts. You try to use your input to transform the material and after this process it carries a certain kind of meaning.

For me the most important part in the whole process is the relation between the real human body, the physical body and this physical material. I try to push further and further in this direction. I try to put my body in different situations in order to have experiences that are not familiar in daily life.

One of my pieces is a metal structure in which I can hang myself upside down on hooks. The structure rocks when I hook myself into it and I need to use my own body weight to maintain balance. I try to put my body in this kind of abnormal situation in order to experience new perceptions.

If I were to summarise my work, I would use three words: perception, conception and pre-conception. Perception is about experience. It's about putting your body in a certain environment to experience something through your different senses. Conception is about how your bodily experience becomes a kind of knowledge. Pre-conception is a kind of questioning, like what you experience if you try to walk on two balls.

Walking is a normal daily movement. But when you put yourself in this kind of abnormal situation - you are forced to question the whole posit of walking. You have to keep yourself balanced in order not to fall off the wooden balls. I find it interesting to put it in this way in these three words that look similar.

To me, my own experience is the most essential part, because making art changes me. Once you have these experiences which are not normal in daily life, you experience a kind of sublimation of your own mind.

This transformation within yourself is not necessarily presented in your work. But it could be presented in your daily life when you communicate with other people. Or it could suggest new perspectives of looking at something, which you can share with other people in your daily communication. I don't think a piece of artwork has too much power to say a very definite message to your audience.

A piece of artwork to me just provides a situation that the audience and I can experience together.'

Ho Siu-kee's latest exhibition, based on the Chinese creation myth Pangu, will run until December 31 at the Macau Contemporary Art Centre