“Post adolescent” art on display in two Taiwanese museums – picture feast

EMERGING ARTISTS TAIWANESE ART MUSEUM SHOWS COLLECTIONS

An exhibition exploring the theme of “post adolescence” is presenting 72 works by younger generation Taiwanese artists, those between 25-35 years of age, in an effort to reveal their art creation processes and society’s influence on them.

Aptly titled “Post Adolescence“, the exhibition recently showed at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMoFA) and is finishing up at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, an institution managed by the Taipei National University of the Arts.

A partnership between these two art institutions, “Post Adolescence” is in part a way to showcase NTMoFA’s Young Artist Collection Program, started in 2005 and which now holds nearly 500 pieces by “post-adolescent” Taiwanese artists under 35 years of age. According to the museum’s website, the program aims to “cultivate young artistic talent, elevate and develop contemporary art in Taiwan and promote cultural industries.”

“Post Adolescence” is seen by Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts as an attempt to define the characteristics shared by artists in this age group:

The highly motivated generation of younger artists demonstrates novel art works using [the] special visual language of comics, aimless/purposeful cacophony of voices, or Internet-based technological devices.

The works of those artists embody innovative and surreal themes, reflecting their generation characteristics – passionate yet rebellious – and presenting an alternative form of art in Taiwan.

Many of the artists exhibiting works in the show have won awards – this is one of the criteria for inclusion in the Young Artist Collection. Standout participants include: Cheng-ta Yu, Kuo I-Chen, Su Hui-yu, Huan Wei-min, Chen Wan-ren, Wang Pei-ying and Wang Ting-yu. Cheng-ta Yu and Kuo I-chen featured in the Taiwan Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) and Su Hui-yu was nominated for the Taishin Arts Award.

Lo Chan-Peng, 'Youth Diary of the Strawberry Cell Division 3', 2008, oil on canvas, 194 x 194 cm. Image courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Wang Chung-Kun, 'sound.of.bottles #3', 2009, kinetic installation, 200 x 180 x 180 cm. Image courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Chen Ching-Yuan, 'We Catch the Land!', 2008, screen printing and acrylic, 270 x 550 cm. Image courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Hua Chien-Ciang, 'The Divine Series', 2006, gauche, 200 × 60 cm (four panels). Images courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Kuo I-Chen, Survivor Project《41°N，74°W》, 2007, digital print, 87 x 240 cm. Image courtesy Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

Wang Liang-Yin, 'Pudding of Consciousness', 2005, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 194 cm. Image courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts.

KN

Related Topics: Taiwanese artists, museum shows, museum collectors, emerging artists

Related Posts:

• Young Taiwanese unable to name leading local artists, survey reports – May 2010 – a summary of an intriguing article on art knowledge and education in Taiwan
• 3 young Chinese artists awarded prizes at inaugural Caochangdi PhotoSpring – May 2010 – more on emerging Asian artists winning awards
• Korean National Museum of Contemporary Art Young Korean Artists retrospective spans 30 years – May 2010 – evidence of the influence of awards and collections focussing on young artists
• Four Asian artists nominated for NYC PULSE Awards – March 2010 – offers some biographical details for these artists
• The ones to watch: four young Taiwanese artists in Taipei Art Awards – January 2010 – details on the winners of the 2009 awards

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on emerging Taiwanese artists

Advertisement

Taiwanese photographers, video artists and an architect at 53rd Venice Biennale

TAIWANESE ARTISTS VENICE BIENNALE

Though they span architecture, film and photography, the four Taiwanese artists featured in the 53rd Venice Biennale exhibition ‘Foreign Affairs’ share a common focus. Each looks at the unequal treatment of the disadvantaged in the midst of globalisation, and has taken action through distinctive, personal, and practical means.

Furthermore, they have all engaged in dialogue and interaction with other areas of the world.

 

Hsieh Ying-Chun

 

Hsieh Ying-Chun

 

Hsieh Ying-Chun (* 1954) is a Taiwanese architect who for years has worked to provide minorities and disadvantaged members of society with collaborative construction.

More than an architect, Hsieh is an architectural activist who takes social, cultural and economic limitations and ecological concerns into consideration to create works that embody the ideals of “sustainable construction”.

Hsieh Ying-Chun opposes modernist division of labour and classification.

 

Chen Chieh-Jen, Empire's Borders, DVD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chen Chieh-Jen

The insulting treatment recently accorded Chen Chieh-Jen while applying for a U.S. visa has precipitated discussion of the plight of the Taiwanese people under the post-Cold War, post-colonial, and neo-liberalist global order.

The new work, Empire’s Borders (2009), is a film that opens showing the various and sundry checks that Taiwanese citizens must endure when applying for a U.S. visa for business, tourism, or family reasons.

Watch excerpts from Chen Chieh-jen’s complete video works at the Asia Society… on the effects of globalization on the marginalized in society… and Lingchi Executions

Chien-Chi Chang, China Town Series

.

 

 

 

 

Chien-Chi Chang

Among his best known works are photos chronicling illegal workers in New York’s Chinatown (China Town); The Chain, a series of photographs taken at Longfatang, a controversial psychiatric shelter in southern Taiwan; and the matchmaking and courting rituals that bring Taiwanese men and Vietnamese women together in marriage (Double Happiness).

Chang began his chronicling of the lives of illegal immigrants on the streets of New York’s Chinatown in 1992, traveling to Fujian province in China to visit their families and relate the unique tales of these people that live on the margins of society. Hong John Lin notes that the most remarkable aspect of the photography process is that “the photographer becomes a part of the subjects’ lives, so that a total state of disarmament is reflected in front of the camera.”

Chien-Chi Chang on wikipedia

Cheng-Ta Yu, Ventriloquists, Video, 2009

Cheng – Ta Yu

Cheng-Ta Yu’s latest work is a video documentation of two Philippine women who married Taiwanese men and work in the same building in Taipei.

After more than a decade living in Taiwan, local language has become a tool in their daily lives, but in his interaction with them, Yu tries out three different languages (Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English), taking on some of their idiosyncratic pronunciations in his conversations.

To conclude the video with a note of levity, the women sing a song in Mandarin in an effort to liberate everyone from the language barriers that inevitably formed in their conversation.

Source: Press release via Universes in Universe

Related posts:

• MOMA acquires Israeli artist Guy Ben-Ner video Moby Dick – Apr 2009 – another artist who takes family and the domestic environment as inspiration
• Middle Eastern, Indian, Pakistani show seminal works in Lines of Control – interview Hammad Nassar – Feb 09 – a travelling exhibition looking at issues arising in nations, like but not including Taiwan, ‘made’ by partition
• UBS collecting global and video art – Aug 2008 – since 2000 the UBS collection has focussed on global diversity and immigration

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia