From Emptiness, a Quip
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S T Y L E 生活時尚 15 TAIPEI TIMES • WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009 EXHIBITIONS From emptiness, a quip Tsong Pu’s installation at the National Taiwan Fine Art Museum’s Asian Art Biennial might appear abstruse, but it includes a jibe that won’t be missed by art world insiders BY BLAKE CARTER STAFF REPORTER Augmented Sculpture Series is an installation by Spanish new media artist Pablo Valbuena. 1973, Tsong Pu’s (莊普) parents gave him founding members of the contemporary art scene least in Taiwan. In his free time he made collages displays none of the “holier than thou” attributes US$1,500 and a one-way ticket to Spain. that developed in Taiwan in the 1980s. At the and learned about Western art from American that some artists his age do — Tsong has PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DIGITAL ARTS CENTER In Madrid University is not the first place Asian Art Biennial, now being held at Taichung’s and Japanese magazines. He remembers reading unflinchingly followed his vision. one would think a young, modern artist would National Taiwan Fine Arts Museum, he’s filled about — or at least looking at pictures of works by After seeing his model for the installation last Artists from Taiwan, Germany, choose to study at the time, but Tsong says he a large, high-ceilinged gallery with an elegant, — Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali at month, I was surprised to find that some of the Japan, Sweden and Spain wanted to improve his technique and selected rather austere installation titled One Comes a time when Taiwanese art magazines didn’t exist. ropes he installed at the Biennial fall onto a bent working in interactive a school where he would be forced to paint From Emptiness — just the type of work his “At home, at school, and in society there was metal signpost that reads “Taiwan Contemporary installation, sound and video art realistically. He returned to Taiwan eight years university teachers might have thumbed their a feeling you couldn’t think freely, so when you Art Museum.” There is no such place. Many artists will show off their work as part later, and hasn’t painted realistically since. noses at in the 1970s, perhaps describing it as saw Jackson Pollock and that kind of stuff you felt complain that Taiwan’s museums — especially in of the Fourth Digital Arts Today the 62-year-old is seen as one of the “pretentious” or “incomprehensible.” free, so you wanted to create something with the the capital, and specifically the Taipei Fine Arts Festival. This year’s theme, Seven-meter lengths of white nylon rope hang same kind of feeling,” he says. Museum (TFAM) — don’t pay enough attention to “Funky Light” (光怪), probes from the ceiling on discrete supports. On the By Western standards, he was well behind the the country’s artists. the nature of technology and ground, the ropes are carefully arranged into coils, times. Pollock died when Tsong was nine years old, “I wanted a contrast between soft and hard,” its effect on civilization. The each about 1m in diameter. Tsong showed me a while Miro and Dali were old hat when he chose Tsong said when I asked him about the augmented festival, which takes place at the model for the work at his studio near National to study in their country. But Tsong had already work last week. Museum of Contemporary Art, Taiwan Normal University early last month. The decided what he would do. But what about the fact Taiwanese artists Taipei (MOCA, Taipei) and the forms are reminiscent of cobras rising for a snake The purity of his abstract paintings and his are relegated to the museum’s smaller galleries Digital Arts Center (台北數位藝 charmer, or the rope that magicians might coax up nonjudgmental attitude toward art gained attention downstairs while Chinese artists Fang Lijun (方 術中心), is accompanied by a from a table or hat. when he returned to Taiwan with an art degree and 力鈞), Cai Guo-qiang (蔡國強) and Ai Weiwei (艾未 series of performances and an The weave of the rope is similar to the patterns Spanish wife (now divorced) in tow. He was one of 未) get large exhibitions at TFAM? Was his work a artist forum. in Tsong’s best-known works — abstract paintings the founding members of IT Park Gallery in Taipei, comment on that? ■ Digital Arts Center (台北數 composed of 1cm-by-1cm squares that are often a non-government, non-commercial art space for I expected he’d avoid the question as the 位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, adorned with a diagonal swath of paint. Tsong says and by artists that after more than 20 years is still powerful TFAM defines who’s who in Taiwan’s art Taipei City (台北市福華路180號). that he has been interested in repetition since he running, though struggling to stay open. world and has several of Tsong’s paintings in its Open Tuesdays to Sundays was a student at Fu-Hsin Trade and Arts School A father figure to many young artists collection. But he didn’t hesitate. from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) four decades ago. — or perhaps better described as an uncle, as he “Yes,” he said. 7736-0708; and Museum of “My classmates still ask me how I can keep doing Contemporary Art, Taipei the same thing without getting bored,” he laughs. (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan Throughout his years as a student at Fu-Hsin, W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安 his three-year military service and his time at 西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Madrid University, Tsong lived a double life. Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Whether he spent his days drawing from plaster Tel: (02) 2552-3721. On the Net: replicas of Greek sculpture or building tanks dac.tw/daf09 in Taichung, he produced art in his free time, ■ Begins Friday. Until Nov. 15 developing a unique aesthetic. While young, Tsong was ahead of his peers, at Taiwanese contemporary artist Chang Chih-Cheng (張 Right: Tsong Pu, One Comes From Emptiness (2009). 志成) presents a new series of Below: Tsong Pu, The Color of Frost (1999). portraits and dream-inspired PHOTOS COURTESY OF TSONG PU works in his solo exhibition Beyond Words (意外). Chang’s oil paintings of human figures on a featureless landscape are rendered in subdued hues that depict a lonely and desolate picture of human existence. ■ Chen Ling Hui Contemporary Space (陳綾蕙當代空間) 2, Alley 24, Ln 300, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段300巷 25弄2號). Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2703-2277 ■ Until Nov. 29 Norwegian ceramicist Ole By displaying stodgy old The weightiness of Chang’s photographs Lislerud examines consumerism Sinophile Lee Shi-chi’s (李錫奇) juxtaposed nicely with the first work in Metaphorical Signs. new mixed media work just viewers see after passing through the Employing visual references around the corner from pieces lobby into the exhibition area of the to the marketplace and stock by Tsong Pu (莊普) and several museum: the Guinness Book of World exchange, Lislerud’s series of Highlights Taiwanese 20-somethings, the Records largest-ever photo book, made ceramic tiles, porcelain panels show addresses the refrain by Japanese artist Hitomi Toyama. She and plaques employs markings, so often repeated by artists in proudly says the 3m-by-4m, 26-page signs, calligraphy, photos this country: “Who am I?” To monstrosity Women of Vietnam weighs and graffiti that are meant of the Lee’s credit, he pointed out Lee Shi-chi, Orientation Sprouting From the Root in at 200kg. My request to turn a page Hitomi Toyama, Women of Vietnam (2008). to symbolize the pressures PHOTO COURTESY OF NTMFA in a rousing Artists Forum — 14 (2005). PHOTO COURTESY OF NTMFA was curtly dismissed by museum staff. of advertising and the presentation on the show’s assumption that the meaning opening day that he had “been there/done everything” before arriving at his Also Japanese, two-boy group (or of life is attained through Asian Art current style of Taiwanese art with Chinese characteristics. two-man group — Yusuke Nakano is the acquisition of cash and 33 and Yasuhiko Hayashi 38 years old) commodities. The 20-somethings hint at the Paramodel filled a 58 ping (193m²) ■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯 diversity that makes the younger gallery floor, walls and ceiling with toy 歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Biennial generation of Taiwanese artists car tracks, toy cranes and Styrofoam Yinge Township, Taipei County so difficult to pin down. Mia mountains in an installation they said (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Liu’s (Liu Wen-hsuan, 劉文瑄) they’d shown, with little variation, in Open Tuesdays to Fridays from BY BLAKE CARTER work was inspired by a job she six countries. It was hard to get a word 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm STAFF REPORTER had at the Guggenheim in New out of the Osaka-based pair through the on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: York for about a year, selling museum’s inept Japanese-to-Chinese Paramodel, Paramodelic Graffiti (2009). (02) 8677-2727 ■ Until Dec. 6 he second Asian Art Biennial at the tickets to hundreds of visitors translator. “We like toys,” is about as PHOTO COURTESY OF NTMFA a day. As any young artist deep as the 20-minute interview got. National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Taiwanese contemporary in Taichung takes on grand themes, but might do, she dreamt of one Nonetheless, the room is fun to walk through. Once. Then you feel like a grup T day showing her work there. and never want to see it again. artist Chang Pei-chun (張培均) unlike much of last year’s Taipei Biennial, it Liu Wen-hsuan, I Am Mia Liu (2008).