Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts

About the Exhibition

Curator: Tsai Jia-Zhen

Artists: Chen Ching-Yuan, Chen Fei-Hao, Chung Jaeyeon, Ho Wei-Ming, Jun Sojung,Tsao Liang-Pin

Tsai Jia-Zhen

The exhibition title “WEAREBOUNDTOMEET” appears romantic, but intends to confront and treat the discernible and indiscernible wounds of historical trauma. The subject in this project is not the Self (individual, personal) against the Other, but a “we” that means you and I, while I am also conscious of you. This “we” refers to the people and events that have happened in a historical timeline, with everything in the present shifting into the future. In the tide of ever-changing events, only by understanding history as a unit of you and I, and not regarding it as other, can one begin to reach the essence of the wound, and see the truth of the event, and the truths of the past, present, and future. Only by encountering the past,facing the wounds of an era, and confronting traumas caused by political history, can “they” join us in becoming “we.”

As a consequence of Japanese colonization, Korea and Taiwan share similar historical experiences in modern times. Therefore, “WEAREBOUNDTOMEET” invites works that explore historical issues in Korea and Taiwan. This curatorial approach will take the form of a trilogy, presented successively, similar to the installments in a classical novel (noted here as Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three). The project showcases Chen Ching-Yuan’s filmic video“Staggering Matter” (2011) as the prologue and Chapter One of the trilogy, which alludes to the fact that Korea and Taiwan have been pawns in a political game between the USA, China, Japan and Russia from the period of Japanese colonialism to the neoliberalism of today.

Chapter Oneis entitled “Many Wounded Walk Out of the Monitor, They Turn a Blind Eye and Brush Past Me,” inspired by the short story “Carton-Box City” of Taiwanese art critic Val Ling-Ching Chiang who passed away suddenly in 2015. The short story was a metaphorical novel that Chiang wrote while participating in one of my projects in 2014, using unrequited love as an analogy for an unsuccessful student movement. Like the words in poems “calling out to the dead,” and the azaleas of Korean poet Kim So-Wol, words of despair and forlorn love, can actually be patriotic sentiments. This chapter will exhibit works related to Japanese colonial history, an era that although now a chapter in our history textbooks, is one which we have not yet been able to process the wounds and hurt that we have received from generation to generation. In a time when the international, political and economic situation is grim, it is important to confront and contemplate these wounds.

The four works in Chapter One is further divided into two sections: “Those Ignored in the Historical Narrative” and “The Consciousness Behind Buildings.” In the first section, Chen Fei-Hao’s work focuses on Charles W. Le Gendre (1830-1899), an American diplomat based in Xiamen, China, who was asked to intercede following The Rover Incident. Reconstructing various historical archives related to this event in the form of video, with the “Song of Reminiscence” of Taiwan’s indigenous Paiwan as its crux, the project will uncover historical connections between Japan, USA, Korea and Taiwan. Jun Sojung’s work examines writer and architect Yi Sang, and how his work represents a shrewd insight into the transitional period from the colonial period to a capitalistic state, hinting at new possibilities of art as resistance to artistic attitudes.

The works of Chen and Jun present a correlation: of an era and humanity. Was Le Gendre a witness of turbulent times, or was he responsible for igniting yet another trepid era? Can Yi Sang’s avant-garde spirit in using art as resistance against cruel reality, guide us in the path of escape and resistance? Furthermore, if the times are a product of mankind, how do we face the times created by “us”? How does a flower push through the cracks?

In understanding buildings as a symbol of colonial power, Chung Jaeyeon intends to return to the memory of Governor-General of Korea, which was demolished during the administration of President Kim Young-Sam in 1995, in her moving image work “Lost Corner.” This “return” and “reconstruction” is misconstrued in South Korea’s resentment towards Japan, but the artist attempts to unravel this through the identity politics of colonial buildings. The photographic works “Becoming/Taiwanese” in 2018 by Tsao Liang-Pin aim to document Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, reconstructed from former Japanese Shinto shrines, and their relations to various communities and ethnicities in Taiwan. By juxtaposing the images and archives of the Japanese Shinto shrines and Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, the artist provides a historical context for understanding: Two conflicting political entities and its inheritance, pay witness to the identity of Taiwan which has experienced over a century of colonization.

Chung’s work is in dialogue with Tsao: Through disparate, embodied political propaganda and the operations of various political regimes, buildings are sites of discussion for identity politics, eliciting different reactions from different perspectives. In other words, in the preservation and abolition of Japanese colonization/rule, Taiwan and Korea showcase contrasting identification, decolonization, ideological issues and political operations despite undergoing a similar framework of colonization, which is also the most worthwhile site of discussion: What ideology should we use in facing and understanding buildings and architecture?

Currently in progress, Chapter Two “Looking back at the exhibition entrance, opposite the screen, the entering viewer blazes like fireworks exploding in the night, with the glow of fire illuminating the surrounding silent faces” will attempt to explore modern protests and social movements in Taiwan and Korea in the 1980s, showcase Ho Wei-Ming’s video work “Over My Dead Country” as the trailer.

About the Exhibition

Curator: Tsai Jia-Zhen

Artists: Chen Ching-Yuan, Chen Fei-Hao, Chung Jaeyeon, Ho Wei-Ming, Jun Sojung,Tsao Liang-Pin

Tsai Jia-Zhen

The exhibition title “WEAREBOUNDTOMEET” appears romantic, but intends to confront and treat the discernible and indiscernible wounds of historical trauma. The subject in this project is not the Self (individual, personal) against the Other, but a “we” that means you and I, while I am also conscious of you. This “we” refers to the people and events that have happened in a historical timeline, with everything in the present shifting into the future. In the tide of ever-changing events, only by understanding history as a unit of you and I, and not regarding it as other, can one begin to reach the essence of the wound, and see the truth of the event, and the truths of the past, present, and future. Only by encountering the past,facing the wounds of an era, and confronting traumas caused by political history, can “they” join us in becoming “we.”

As a consequence of Japanese colonization, Korea and Taiwan share similar historical experiences in modern times. Therefore, “WEAREBOUNDTOMEET” invites works that explore historical issues in Korea and Taiwan. This curatorial approach will take the form of a trilogy, presented successively, similar to the installments in a classical novel (noted here as Chapter One, Chapter Two and Chapter Three). The project showcases Chen Ching-Yuan’s filmic video“Staggering Matter” (2011) as the prologue and Chapter One of the trilogy, which alludes to the fact that Korea and Taiwan have been pawns in a political game between the USA, China, Japan and Russia from the period of Japanese colonialism to the neoliberalism of today.

Chapter Oneis entitled “Many Wounded Walk Out of the Monitor, They Turn a Blind Eye and Brush Past Me,” inspired by the short story “Carton-Box City” of Taiwanese art critic Val Ling-Ching Chiang who passed away suddenly in 2015. The short story was a metaphorical novel that Chiang wrote while participating in one of my projects in 2014, using unrequited love as an analogy for an unsuccessful student movement. Like the words in poems “calling out to the dead,” and the azaleas of Korean poet Kim So-Wol, words of despair and forlorn love, can actually be patriotic sentiments. This chapter will exhibit works related to Japanese colonial history, an era that although now a chapter in our history textbooks, is one which we have not yet been able to process the wounds and hurt that we have received from generation to generation. In a time when the international, political and economic situation is grim, it is important to confront and contemplate these wounds.

The four works in Chapter One is further divided into two sections: “Those Ignored in the Historical Narrative” and “The Consciousness Behind Buildings.” In the first section, Chen Fei-Hao’s work focuses on Charles W. Le Gendre (1830-1899), an American diplomat based in Xiamen, China, who was asked to intercede following The Rover Incident. Reconstructing various historical archives related to this event in the form of video, with the “Song of Reminiscence” of Taiwan’s indigenous Paiwan as its crux, the project will uncover historical connections between Japan, USA, Korea and Taiwan. Jun Sojung’s work examines writer and architect Yi Sang, and how his work represents a shrewd insight into the transitional period from the colonial period to a capitalistic state, hinting at new possibilities of art as resistance to artistic attitudes.

The works of Chen and Jun present a correlation: of an era and humanity. Was Le Gendre a witness of turbulent times, or was he responsible for igniting yet another trepid era? Can Yi Sang’s avant-garde spirit in using art as resistance against cruel reality, guide us in the path of escape and resistance? Furthermore, if the times are a product of mankind, how do we face the times created by “us”? How does a flower push through the cracks?

In understanding buildings as a symbol of colonial power, Chung Jaeyeon intends to return to the memory of Governor-General of Korea, which was demolished during the administration of President Kim Young-Sam in 1995, in her moving image work “Lost Corner.” This “return” and “reconstruction” is misconstrued in South Korea’s resentment towards Japan, but the artist attempts to unravel this through the identity politics of colonial buildings. The photographic works “Becoming/Taiwanese” in 2018 by Tsao Liang-Pin aim to document Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, reconstructed from former Japanese Shinto shrines, and their relations to various communities and ethnicities in Taiwan. By juxtaposing the images and archives of the Japanese Shinto shrines and Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, the artist provides a historical context for understanding: Two conflicting political entities and its inheritance, pay witness to the identity of Taiwan which has experienced over a century of colonization.

Chung’s work is in dialogue with Tsao: Through disparate, embodied political propaganda and the operations of various political regimes, buildings are sites of discussion for identity politics, eliciting different reactions from different perspectives. In other words, in the preservation and abolition of Japanese colonization/rule, Taiwan and Korea showcase contrasting identification, decolonization, ideological issues and political operations despite undergoing a similar framework of colonization, which is also the most worthwhile site of discussion: What ideology should we use in facing and understanding buildings and architecture?

Currently in progress, Chapter Two “Looking back at the exhibition entrance, opposite the screen, the entering viewer blazes like fireworks exploding in the night, with the glow of fire illuminating the surrounding silent faces” will attempt to explore modern protests and social movements in Taiwan and Korea in the 1980s, showcase Ho Wei-Ming’s video work “Over My Dead Country” as the trailer.

Artists

陳敬元
Chen Ching-Yuan

Staggering Matter
three-channel video installation / 67’51” / 2011

“Stagger” as a verb means “to stumble, flinch.” “Staggering” as an adjective means “amazingly huge, but meanwhile crumbling.” Staggering Matter, literally means “great, amazing events (things)” but at the same time implies that another side of this “object” is rather tumultuous and support-less. In this work, Chen Ching-Yuan continues the imagination of identity and subtle body,but he tries to detach himself, in various forms, split personalities and points of view, continuing this squeezed, bundled body under intangible huge pressure. Of course, this method is bound to have many flaws. The intrepidity and frustration, shown by a “sense of history” overriding reality and fantasy, echo the sense of powerlessness for this monster.

-

陳飛豪
Chen Fei-Hao

Empress Myeongseong, Charles W. Le Gendre, and Princess of Eight Treasures
two-channel video installation / 13’04” / 2019

In Kenting, Pingtung, there is a temple devoted to a Western woman called “Princess Babao Temple” (the Temple of the Princess of Eight Treasures). According to the research of local culture and history group Hengchun Tazhen Xuehui (Hengchun True Development Association), during the Rover Incident in 1867, an American merchant ship encountered a hurricane en route from Guangdong to Liaoning, and drifted to the southern coast of Taiwan, with the ship sinking near Lanyu. The captain and surviving crew disembarked in Lông-kiau (Hengchun) but were killed by the Paiwan, one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwanese, including the captain’s wife, Mercy Hunt.

Charles W. Le Gendre, the American diplomat based in Xiamen, China who was sent to intercede following the Rover Incident, established connections with the Paiwan in Pingtung and an in-depth understanding of the political circumstance of Qing Dynasty’s rule over Taiwan. He would later become the advisor that assisted the Japanese invasion of Taiwan during the Mudan Incident of 1871, and an indirect cause of the Japanese colonization of Taiwan.

In March of 1890, Le Gendre left Japan and became a diplomatic advisor to Emperor Gojong of Korea. Emperor Gojong was caught between the political feud of his father Heungseon Daewongun and his wife Empress Myeongseong. The empress was later assassinated by Japanese agents in Gyeongbokgung Palace. This is one of the famous court tragedies in Korean history, and also the largest political event after Le Gendre’s arrival. However his time in Korea was short-lived, as Le Gendre died of stroke in 1899 and was buried in the Yanhwajin Foreigners’ Cemetery in Seoul. Korea would still succumb to the fate of Japanese colonial rule.

Now, a century later, the Princess Babao Temple still stands in Kenting, as the local patron saint guarding Hengchun, and witness to the Rover Incident, the Mudan Incident, and subsequent Japanese colonization. Le Gendre embodies the complicated history between the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Chen Fei-Hao reconstructs historical archives related to this event through video, with the Piawan “Song of Reminiscence” as its crux, revealing this unfamiliar, but historical link that spans the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

-

鄭在妍
Chung Jaeyeon

Lost Corner
1. A Sketch for a Foundation
single-channel video installation / 6'22" / 2019
2. Memory Archive
single-channel video installation / 20'18" / 2019

I am interested in particular situations or places where people get together. I first observe and attempt to understand the psychological transformations and group dynamics that occur in places where people gather and then I try to articulate how individuality or individual behaviour is transformed or constructed within a group. Consequently my work often responds to the particular architectural and environmental context with site-specific installations, video and public interventions.

This project starts with my memory of a specific place: the former Japanese General Government Building in Seoul. For me the building is like an individual who has multiple identities. It was born as the Japanese General Government Building, after which it was named Central Hall under the rule of the US, and then after Korea’s liberation it became known as the National Assembly of Korea. Following this, it served as the National Museum of Korea from 1986 to 1995. Later in 1995, after a contentious debate over whether to destroy or preserve the building, it was finally demolished on the 50th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.

My memory of the building is inconsonant with what I found in the official national archive. When I visited the National Museum as a child, I had an aesthetic experience, wandering around the building with its softly curving staircases and balustrades. Hence, my personal memory conflicts with the official narrative, which views the building as a symbol of colonial power, which prevents a sense of closure from being reached. Consequently I intend to reveal the constant dissonance that occurs as personal memory becomes subordinate to an official memory that stands for a consensus formed by political ideologies or collective interests.

何尉民
Ho Wei-Ming

Over My Dead Country
single-channel video installation / 11’11” / 2011-2013

I consider the work to be an experiment in “spectropoetics”: a re-visitation of the ghosts that haunt the history, this historical event conjures overtones of present social issues. An elegy presents the prelude of the collapsed faith about a weak country, as if it's the last radiance of a setting sun under the shadow of threats. Is this a 100th anniversary celebration of a country, a prediction of doom or sincere wishes? From various angles,these images were captured around the skyscraper with the splendid firework. Going along with the psychedelic rhythm, the firework display and the self-immolation of the freedom fighter, this work not only presents visual paradoxes but also discloses a real existence which is not recognized. This work transforms a fusion of the tragedy and the celebration; it also reflects the concern of media monopoly, social and political predicament and a situation of the country. Through the revelation of flame, will you see the historical process, repetition or ending? In the end, politics dominates art or art can transcend politics?

-

全昭侹
Jun Sojung

DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit
video installation / 11’10” / 2018

“DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit” is a project that looks into exploration of the modernity of the city of Seoul based on an early-day poem of Korean poet and architect Yi Sang. The urban reality of Seoul in the 30s and his experience as an architect are well reflected throughout his poem. Seoul which transforms itself into a capitalistic space under the colonial rule and a multitude of people that stride in the city, and experiences of the dizzying reality brought about by the modern civilization emerge as such non-literary signifiers – points & lines, numbers or signs, geometrical figures, numerical tables, Chinese characters, scenes of dissection in operating rooms, matrix tables and formulas in physics – and literary instruments – newly established code systems and perspective views.

This work converts such emotions as awe, fear and outrage that must have been felt through urban transition from the poem of Yi Sang into signs, and pays attention to literary instruments as attitudes of deconstruction and construction and aesthetic shocks. This project starting with an autobiographical monologue traces the existence of myself caught in the closed circuit television (CCTV) against the streets of Jongno, Seoul. Awe and fear towards the streets of Jongno where Yi Sang used to walk in the 30s are collaged with advertisement copies back then and are overlapped on a sense of speed of 2018. I feel dizzy about my existence that is continuously feedbacked on a screen by being blocked into the bracket-like CCTV. This dizziness confronts floating ghosts in corners of the background as it occurs in another aspect through tempo-spatial teleportation. The work whose title has been appropriated from a poetic phrase of Yi Sang, ‘DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit?’ which presents the attitude to surmount of modernity, is transferred from the world of circles and straight lines of modernity into that of teleport and the closed circuit. It is a record on anxiety and awe between the past and the future as well as research on temporality in a city.

-

曹良賓
Tsao Liang-Pin

Becoming/Taiwanese
double-sided LED lightbox with backlit transparency / dimensions variable / 2018

Historically, Taiwan was colonized by the Dutch, Spanish, Han, Manchu, Japanese, and Chinese. The rise and fall of different political entities on the island have left behind traces of governance in varying degrees. Despite the freedom and democracy in Taiwannowadays, the ideologies embedded in historical remains continue to influence our sense of self and perception of Taiwan.
This project aims to document Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, formerly Japanese Shinto shrines, and their relations to all kinds of communities, ethnicities in Taiwan. It attempts to underscore the conflicts in the arena: between the dead and the living, between the sacred and the secular, and between national history and democratic values. The relational tensions between Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines and Taiwanese people, as well as the contemporary significance of Chinese Martyrs’ Shrine in the context of transitional justice, will be thus explored.
On a personal level, I wonder what it means to be a Taiwanesetoday? How does one’s national consciousness come into being? What is the relationship between the historical figures memorized in Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines and I? How long does it take to be acknowledged as a Taiwanese? What are the values contained in the idea of Taiwanese, and how do they shape me as a person, and our future?

Artists

陳敬元
Chen Ching-Yuan

Staggering Matter
three-channel video installation / 67’51” / 2011

“Stagger” as a verb means “to stumble, flinch.” “Staggering” as an adjective means “amazingly huge, but meanwhile crumbling.” Staggering Matter, literally means “great, amazing events (things)” but at the same time implies that another side of this “object” is rather tumultuous and support-less. In this work, Chen Ching-Yuan continues the imagination of identity and subtle body,but he tries to detach himself, in various forms, split personalities and points of view, continuing this squeezed, bundled body under intangible huge pressure. Of course, this method is bound to have many flaws. The intrepidity and frustration, shown by a “sense of history” overriding reality and fantasy, echo the sense of powerlessness for this monster.

-

陳飛豪
Chen Fei-Hao

Empress Myeongseong, Charles W. Le Gendre, and Princess of Eight Treasures
two-channel video installation / 13’04” / 2019

In Kenting, Pingtung, there is a temple devoted to a Western woman called “Princess Babao Temple” (the Temple of the Princess of Eight Treasures). According to the research of local culture and history group Hengchun Tazhen Xuehui (Hengchun True Development Association), during the Rover Incident in 1867, an American merchant ship encountered a hurricane en route from Guangdong to Liaoning, and drifted to the southern coast of Taiwan, with the ship sinking near Lanyu. The captain and surviving crew disembarked in Lông-kiau (Hengchun) but were killed by the Paiwan, one of the indigenous peoples of Taiwanese, including the captain’s wife, Mercy Hunt.

Charles W. Le Gendre, the American diplomat based in Xiamen, China who was sent to intercede following the Rover Incident, established connections with the Paiwan in Pingtung and an in-depth understanding of the political circumstance of Qing Dynasty’s rule over Taiwan. He would later become the advisor that assisted the Japanese invasion of Taiwan during the Mudan Incident of 1871, and an indirect cause of the Japanese colonization of Taiwan.

In March of 1890, Le Gendre left Japan and became a diplomatic advisor to Emperor Gojong of Korea. Emperor Gojong was caught between the political feud of his father Heungseon Daewongun and his wife Empress Myeongseong. The empress was later assassinated by Japanese agents in Gyeongbokgung Palace. This is one of the famous court tragedies in Korean history, and also the largest political event after Le Gendre’s arrival. However his time in Korea was short-lived, as Le Gendre died of stroke in 1899 and was buried in the Yanhwajin Foreigners’ Cemetery in Seoul. Korea would still succumb to the fate of Japanese colonial rule.

Now, a century later, the Princess Babao Temple still stands in Kenting, as the local patron saint guarding Hengchun, and witness to the Rover Incident, the Mudan Incident, and subsequent Japanese colonization. Le Gendre embodies the complicated history between the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Chen Fei-Hao reconstructs historical archives related to this event through video, with the Piawan “Song of Reminiscence” as its crux, revealing this unfamiliar, but historical link that spans the US, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

-

鄭在妍
Chung Jaeyeon

Lost Corner
1. A Sketch for a Foundation
single-channel video installation / 6'22" / 2019
2. Memory Archive
single-channel video installation / 20'18" / 2019

I am interested in particular situations or places where people get together. I first observe and attempt to understand the psychological transformations and group dynamics that occur in places where people gather and then I try to articulate how individuality or individual behaviour is transformed or constructed within a group. Consequently my work often responds to the particular architectural and environmental context with site-specific installations, video and public interventions.

This project starts with my memory of a specific place: the former Japanese General Government Building in Seoul. For me the building is like an individual who has multiple identities. It was born as the Japanese General Government Building, after which it was named Central Hall under the rule of the US, and then after Korea’s liberation it became known as the National Assembly of Korea. Following this, it served as the National Museum of Korea from 1986 to 1995. Later in 1995, after a contentious debate over whether to destroy or preserve the building, it was finally demolished on the 50th anniversary of Korea’s liberation.

My memory of the building is inconsonant with what I found in the official national archive. When I visited the National Museum as a child, I had an aesthetic experience, wandering around the building with its softly curving staircases and balustrades. Hence, my personal memory conflicts with the official narrative, which views the building as a symbol of colonial power, which prevents a sense of closure from being reached. Consequently I intend to reveal the constant dissonance that occurs as personal memory becomes subordinate to an official memory that stands for a consensus formed by political ideologies or collective interests.

何尉民
Ho Wei-Ming

Over My Dead Country
single-channel video installation / 11’11” / 2011-2013

I consider the work to be an experiment in “spectropoetics”: a re-visitation of the ghosts that haunt the history, this historical event conjures overtones of present social issues. An elegy presents the prelude of the collapsed faith about a weak country, as if it's the last radiance of a setting sun under the shadow of threats. Is this a 100th anniversary celebration of a country, a prediction of doom or sincere wishes? From various angles,these images were captured around the skyscraper with the splendid firework. Going along with the psychedelic rhythm, the firework display and the self-immolation of the freedom fighter, this work not only presents visual paradoxes but also discloses a real existence which is not recognized. This work transforms a fusion of the tragedy and the celebration; it also reflects the concern of media monopoly, social and political predicament and a situation of the country. Through the revelation of flame, will you see the historical process, repetition or ending? In the end, politics dominates art or art can transcend politics?

-

全昭侹
Jun Sojung

DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit
video installation / 11’10” / 2018

“DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit” is a project that looks into exploration of the modernity of the city of Seoul based on an early-day poem of Korean poet and architect Yi Sang. The urban reality of Seoul in the 30s and his experience as an architect are well reflected throughout his poem. Seoul which transforms itself into a capitalistic space under the colonial rule and a multitude of people that stride in the city, and experiences of the dizzying reality brought about by the modern civilization emerge as such non-literary signifiers – points & lines, numbers or signs, geometrical figures, numerical tables, Chinese characters, scenes of dissection in operating rooms, matrix tables and formulas in physics – and literary instruments – newly established code systems and perspective views.

This work converts such emotions as awe, fear and outrage that must have been felt through urban transition from the poem of Yi Sang into signs, and pays attention to literary instruments as attitudes of deconstruction and construction and aesthetic shocks. This project starting with an autobiographical monologue traces the existence of myself caught in the closed circuit television (CCTV) against the streets of Jongno, Seoul. Awe and fear towards the streets of Jongno where Yi Sang used to walk in the 30s are collaged with advertisement copies back then and are overlapped on a sense of speed of 2018. I feel dizzy about my existence that is continuously feedbacked on a screen by being blocked into the bracket-like CCTV. This dizziness confronts floating ghosts in corners of the background as it occurs in another aspect through tempo-spatial teleportation. The work whose title has been appropriated from a poetic phrase of Yi Sang, ‘DidaTeleportMurdertheClosedCircuit?’ which presents the attitude to surmount of modernity, is transferred from the world of circles and straight lines of modernity into that of teleport and the closed circuit. It is a record on anxiety and awe between the past and the future as well as research on temporality in a city.

-

曹良賓
Tsao Liang-Pin

Becoming/Taiwanese
double-sided LED lightbox with backlit transparency / dimensions variable / 2018

Historically, Taiwan was colonized by the Dutch, Spanish, Han, Manchu, Japanese, and Chinese. The rise and fall of different political entities on the island have left behind traces of governance in varying degrees. Despite the freedom and democracy in Taiwannowadays, the ideologies embedded in historical remains continue to influence our sense of self and perception of Taiwan.
This project aims to document Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines, formerly Japanese Shinto shrines, and their relations to all kinds of communities, ethnicities in Taiwan. It attempts to underscore the conflicts in the arena: between the dead and the living, between the sacred and the secular, and between national history and democratic values. The relational tensions between Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines and Taiwanese people, as well as the contemporary significance of Chinese Martyrs’ Shrine in the context of transitional justice, will be thus explored.
On a personal level, I wonder what it means to be a Taiwanesetoday? How does one’s national consciousness come into being? What is the relationship between the historical figures memorized in Chinese Martyrs’ Shrines and I? How long does it take to be acknowledged as a Taiwanese? What are the values contained in the idea of Taiwanese, and how do they shape me as a person, and our future?

Works