Venue: Gallery 201 Art of Prospection ＋ Wang Sheng-Hung Art of Prospection： Wang Sean、Lin Guan-Ming、Lin Hsien-Chun、Kao Ya-Ting、Huang Wan-Ling、Tzeng Yong-Ning、Liao Zen-Ping、Hsieh Mu-Chi (by Wang Sheng-Hung) Quite a few young artists probably share the following experience: with the support and encouragement of your family, you work tirelessly for admission into art school. There, you are introduced to a dazzling array of artistic styles, while being immersed in various art concepts and knowledge. In a few short years, as if your
art clock” has begun to fast forward, you experience a dialectical process of destruction, deconstruction, and enlightenment until you finally cross into the field of contemporary art. During this time, you begin to gradually sense that, while you seem to be rapidly progressing, your family appears to be fading into a distant past. Although your family still regularly talks to you, and even attempts to understand your artworks and ideas by attending your exhibitions and competitions, their art clock will just never seem to be synchronized with yours. From your perspective, it seems as if they are moving in slow motion, or even suspended in time. You realize they don’t understand your futuristic language. It is as if you have become a time traveler of art - even if you tried to establish common ground, it still seems that they come from somewhere else altogether. This experience inspired the concept behind this exhibition, Futures on the Table. It touches upon a long existing issue of fractured realms that has always been difficult to confront. Furthermore, artistic knowledge can neither be uniform nor exist in a state of simultaneous distribution. However, the speed control of the
art clock” cannot simply be attributed to the question of universalizing art education because the evolution towards an (international) art trend has often been misstated as a universal reality that occurs under a global framework. By viewing the modern experiences of Europe and America as a universal condition, we ignore the special composition and internal logic of the local language and knowledge. In other words, the rediscovery of local realities often does not mark a successful moment for the framework of universal interpretation. Instead, it is a time when the encounter fails and becomes unable to explain the failure. So, facing the various fractures from language and experience, or rather the scattered differences that culminate in the moment of facing each person’s inner art time, serves as a fundamental approach towards gaining a new understanding of the self. However, I unintentionally analyze this problem through a theoretical yet rigid approach. To gauge the differences between people’s internal art time, I tend to think from the perspective of personal experiences or family history. By conducting interviews and gathering many stories, I close in on the core of this problem. To put it simply, Futures on the Table serves as an initial trial in tackling this problem. It is based on two kinds of thought regarding social relationships: First, I am an art critic who has observed and critiqued artworks by the members of Art of Prospection for a long time now. Therefore, I have been involved with Art of Prospection in a subtle way - I maintain a certain distance from the artists, so that I may remain objective in my critiques. Yet, I also do engage in frequent dialogue with them. Through this exhibition, I think alongside the members of Art of Prospection to address the following: Aside from engaging in such unorthodox curator-artist collaboration, how does an art critic participate in the creative process? At the same time, how do artists respond to the art critic’s awareness of the problem? Second, this exhibition focuses on the relationship between artists and the society by conducting a field study of their inner selves. I invited members of Art of Prospection to participate in this investigation to study the relationship they have with their families. For example, how do the parents view their children’s choice to become an artist? How do they perceive their children’s works? What are their perspectives on contemporary art? I also ask the members of Art of Prospection to describe their artworks in layman’s terms to their family. Furthermore, I attempt to understand how contemporary artists in Taiwan deal with and handle their family relations. From another perspective, I also want to understand how family members perceive and respond to another member who is an artist. I believe this study would serve as a perfect reflection of the interaction between society and contemporary artists. Therefore, for this exhibition, there are three stages for every showcased artwork. Aside from presenting their artworks, artists will also unveil findings from a field study of themselves, and provide gifts or make a confession to their family or other relatives. The scope of Futures on the Table goes beyond the daily dialogue between an artist and their family, and touches upon the harsh conditions, career planning, and survival skills associated with being an artist. Aside from showcasing artworks, this exhibition also prompts viewers to ponder about the familiar and not so familiar exchanges that occur between art and daily life. Through this approach, we are prompted to reflect on our decisions to love (or hate) art throughout the various experiences and stages of our lives.