If the greatest impact to the social state is considered to be martial law, then what is it for our generation, born after martial law was lifted?
The exhibition applies the concept of "language variant" as defined in linguistics usually to refer to regional dialects of a single language that derive and develop in different localities to "historical variant” of historical narratives composed of words and phrases as a contemplative basis, and using this as an analogy for the unrestricted publication of textbooks post-martial law, where historical narrative was no longer a single official version. Points of genesis begin to diverge, and a continually state of change and turbulence results from the variations in written history produced by the editorialization of textbooks. In these conditions, how do we shape our subjective cultural identities? How does the generation who lived through martial law reconstruct as they confront the numerous cognitive upheavals of the past after the lifting of martial law? Here, we must first clarify that the production of history necessarily accompanies the writer's subjectivity and underlying ideologies. The process of selection as a writer culls and presents historical materials is precisely consciousness at work. Those who hold the right to historical discourse simultaneously have a grasp on the format and dissemination of power-consciousness.
As the right to generate and write history is opened up, history is no longer dependent on national identity; the process of the collapse of national identity compels us to confront history and necessitates an inspection of the accumulated historical materials and archives of the past, and to begin to read the underlying ideologies so it becomes a historical perspective that individuals can weave and learn anew. We have found that this process of weaving, whether in overturning past narratives through historical realities, or dismantling then re-telling these narratives, does not stray from the central core of "How we imagine the self." For this exhibition, three Taiwanese artists JAO Chia-En, LIU Chihhung, TENG Chao-Ming; and two Malaysian artists residing in Taiwan, AU Sow-Yee, Yannick DAUBY; have been invited to begin with the production of a historical framework in an endeavor to deconstruct and dismantle the process of historical production, and attempt a mutual response and cross-dialog through these works.
In the writing of history, the writer's consciousness is often reflected in the word choices. In confronting a reading of history, are we able to consistently maintain a self-awareness to excavate the underlying ideology in writings of the master writer? Through TENG Chao-Ming's work, A Monument for the (Im)possibility of Figuring it Out, the exhibition discusses how narratives may be deconstructed; and combs through the contexts of dismantling and the process of self-dialogue, while putting forward questions regarding the future direction of monuments. With the "Grand Narrative" on the brink of collapse Yannick DAUBY and LIU Chihhung gradually initiate and excavate the existence of indigenous "small narratives" through the works Taipei 2030 and Sound Geography Kaohsiung, Hengchun, Coastal Area of Tainan, Beitou. The attempt to create various viewpoints of understanding and to encompass various sensory potentials, these collected/edited records both reflect a localized present moment as well as extend our imagination of each region. In recent years, JAO Chia-En's work has explored in depth colonial culture and cross-cultural issues in the Asian Pacific region. His new work continues the discussions on the Kus Kus Tribe from his 2017 work Counterclockwise, and analyzes the economic and cultural research on developing local tourism. The imagined consciousness and identity of the background context is interrogated. The work A Day without Sun in Mengkerang (Chapter 1), by Malaysian artist AU Sow-Yee, who has been residing in Taipei, constructs a imaginary utopia in Mengkerang. Participants in the narrative relay construct an imagined Eutopia of the imagination. During the exhibition period, artist CHEN Fei-Hao will held a seminar and special screening. The Shinto shrine acts as a connective arena of Taipei City between the Japanese colonial era and the arena of today. Four places in Taipei that correspond with CHEN Fei-Hao's four creative project showcases the evolution of landscape and social changes from Taiwan of Japanese colonial era to present-day Taiwan.
About Artists
AU Sow-Yee
b. 1978 in Malaysia, now lives and works in Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.
Graduated from MFA filmmaking program at San Francisco Art Institute (U.S.A), AU’s works focuses mainly in questioning, exploring as well as expanding the relation between images, image making, history, politics and power, through video installation and other mediums. Sow-Yee’s recent works focus on re-imagined history of Malaysia, South-east Asia and it’s related region from perceptions and ideologies bounded by the Cold War. Meanwhile, she also continue her interest in image making mechanism, creating live cinema performance using self-made mechanism and mechanical film projectors. A finalist for the 2018 Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize, Sow-Yee’s works were exhibited in MMCA (Seoul), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), HKW (Berlin), Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum, Singapore Film Festival, official selection of Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul (ExiS), BACC (Bangkok) and various other exhibitions and screenings. Sow-Yee was the co-founder and co-curator for KLEX (Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival) in 2010, 2011 and 2016. She is also one of the guest writers for online magazine No Man’s Land and co-founded Kuala Lumpur’s Rumah Attap Library and Collective in 2017.
Yannick DAUBY
b. 1974 in France, now lives and works in Taipei.
Graduated from MFA digital art program at Université de Poitiers, Yannick DAUBY is currently a sound artist. His background in musique concrete and improvisation, using electroacoustic devices and phonographies. As a field recordist, he has particular interest for animals or nature sounds as well as urban situations and unusual acoustic phenomenas. Excursions are pretext to a sonic gathering, and often leads to the realization of phonographic collages. He often collaborates with other musicians, visual artists and dancers, producing audio-visual performances or installations, and makes sound design for films. His work has been presented by various international festivals, record labels and biennale exhibitions. He is based in Taiwan since 2007, interested into the field of anthropology and ecology, exploring the island’s soundscape through artistic research, developing art projects in local communities and documenting the fauna and its environment, creating art & science projects in collaborations with biologists.
JAO Chia-En
b. 1976 in Taiwan, now lives and works in Taipei.
JAO Chia-En received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Taipei National University of the Arts (2000), before he graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts in Paris (2004). JAO studied at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he received his master's degree in fine arts (2007), and attended a residency program in Paris in 2007.
JAO’s project-based practice stretches across different mediums, including drawing, performance, site-specific installation, and video installation. Pivoting around identity, marginality, aesthetics, and political systems, his work criticizes and responds to the fossilized system, or the values and ideologies which, shaped by social symbols, dominate history, society, the collective, and the individual. His works were exhibited in Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Para Site (Hong Kong), Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin), the National Museum of Art (Osaka), QAGOMA (Queensland), Power Station of Art (Shanghai) and Taipei Fine Arts Museum. In his recent works, the artist has dived into issues concerning colonial history and inter-cultural issues in the Asian-Pacific region. Apart from establishing diverse interpretations toward history in the process of tackling these problematics, he also poses questions on the contexts built by states and the media.
LIU Chihhung
b. 1985 in Taiwan, now lives and works in Taipei.
LIU Chihhung graduated from M.F.A Program, Department of Fine Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts. He is a freelancer/artist who lives and works in Taipei currently. LIU Chihhung’s recent paintings embody his understanding of life and his personal experiences. His approach to narration and interpretation from a mundane perspective allows him to tightly interlock emotions and images. Incorporating images, ready-made objects, investigation reports, and printed materials, his multimedia work attempts to address issues related to the use of ordinary materials, the notion of formal language, and the creation of local connections. His works were exhibited in Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Hong-Gah Museum (Taipei), Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei), Akiyoshidai International Art Village, and Seoul Art Space Geumcheon.
Sound Geography is a publication consisting of a “Voice-drawing” database. Using the “human body” as an auditory organ to perceive various sounds and voices, this project aims to explore the possibility of visualizing what we hear by connecting, transforming, and representing verbal accounts, interviews, images, and abstract/figurative sketch lines. In this work, local objects, people, and stories serve as a narrative source of inspiration
TENG Chao-Ming
b. 1977 in Taiwan, now lives and works in Taipei.
TENG Chao-Ming graduated from the Media Arts and Sciences Program in the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT. TENG exploited Taiwan as an example in his art practices in recent years. Through a multi-faceted cultural rumination mechanism, the artist continues experimenting on the possibility of narratives on the basis of the system of existing “story”, shaping our knowledge toward some cultural subject via the form of constant coding and decoding. TENG’s works were exhibited in Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Dojima River Biennial (Osaka), MoNTUE (Taipei), KMFA (Kaohsiung), Art Sonje Center (Seoul), Gluck 50 (Milan), Hiroshima MOCA, and Warsaw CCA.
About Curator
FENG Hsin
b. 1990 in Taiwan, now lives and works in Taipei.
Graduated from MFA Art Theory and Criticism Program, Department of Arts and Design at National Taipei University of Education, FENG Hsin works as an exhibition coordinator and curator in Tina Keng Gallery and TKG+. In recent years, she concerns herself with the sound art, digital art as well as the contemporary cultural exhibitions and performances in Taiwan. Feng takes years as the scale mostly, so as to observe repeatedly the evolution in the duration. Most recently, she takes artists as the subject for research, depositing her own research genealogy on the development of contemporary art in Taiwan. FENG worked as the project manager to Lacking Sound Festival from 2011 to 2013, the curator to On Site Artfest in 2013, and the executive coordinator to Project Glocal Taipei in 2014. She is also the co-author and co-editor of the book Contemporary Art Curating in Taiwan (2015).