TKG+ is pleased to present Yuan Goang-Ming's solo exhibition Before Memory, on view in Neihu from September 24 to November 6, 2011 (opening reception on Saturday, September 24, 6:00pm-9:00pm). The video installations and photographs of Before Memory, all created this year, examine the temporal and positional facets of memories.
To Yuan, the temporal “before” is the moment that precedes the occurrence of a memory. In contrast, the positional “before,” occurs when one confronts a memory. Memory itself holds multiple meanings – it exists in the past, as well as in the present. The act of remembering is like a journey between the “then” and the “now” – wherein one toggles back and forth between one’s childhood home, one’s hometown, a loved one, a city, or the ruins of a glorious past.
The works of Before Memory take the viewer through these different aspects of remembrance.For instance, the camera of the three-channel video installation Disappearing Landscape – Passing II, traverses abandoned spaces, past a tree, by the ocean, and through the residence of Yuan’s late father. Likewise, in Before Memory, the camera travels through spaces filled with the sounds and sights of “black” – the sea, a forest, and a field of grass, all at night. The multi-media installations, Disappearing Portrait and A Portrait in the Memory, create a discourse between past and present, leaving behind the faint remnants of a portrait on the screen. Smiling Rocking Horse brings into question the boundaries of movement, with the piece of curved wood that remains still while the scene on the screen rocks sideways, just as memories move forward and backward in time.
Yuan Goang-Ming
Born in 1965 in Taipei, Taiwan, and is currently assistant professor at the Graduate School of Art & Technology at the Taipei National University of the Arts. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National Institute of the Arts, Taipei (1989) and a diploma in Media Arts from the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe, Germany (1997). His work has been included in numerous international exhibitions, including the Gwangju Biennale (1995 and 2002), the Taipei Biennial (1998 and 2002), Translated Acts (Berlin, New York, and Mexico City, 2001-02), 01.01.01: Art in Technological Times (San Francisco, 2001), Luna’s Flow: The 2nd Seoul International Media Art Biennale (2002), Culture Meets Culture: Busan Biennale 2002, the Venice Biennale (2003), the Liverpool Biennial (2004), the Guangzhou Triennial (2005), the Singapore Biennale (2008), and Taiwan Calling (Budapest, 2010). He has also curated several exhibitions, including SlowTech,held in 2006 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.
