Foreword
A few of the museum's regular programs have instilled profound influences in the development of Taiwan's art ecosystem. In addition to the "Taipei Art Awards", "Solo Exhibitions: Open Call Artists" is another program that is held annually with artists of epochal significance selected by art scholars and experts. Curatorial considerations are included when the jurors selected the four exhibitions presented this year, and by presenting the artworks in the "#-shaped" space on the 3rd floor of the museum, the artworks are able to echo with one another, and viewers are also able to see four distinct systems employed by these artists for the presentation of their artworks.
Ting-Tong Chang, an alumnus of Goldsmiths, University of London who is currently based in the U.K., presents Kosmos , a creative project he has worked on for two years, which draws inspiration from German naturalist, Alexander von Humboldt. Seeking to process mankind's relationship with the world, the project incorporates issues on how echnology is applied by humans, with a highly metaphorical approach employed the artist to examine this systematic subject. Chang is known for art projects that respond and challenge certain social and relational phenomena. A series of drawings is presented in this solo exhibition by Chang, with the artist transformed into an early natural scientist or nthropologist, who draws notable cultural features he has collected from field trips conducted in the U.K. The drawings are an archival accumulation of both philosophical and scientific significance. In addition to kinetic installations and drawings, video documentaries of Chang's previous projects, including his fish, Spodoptera litura, and Asian tiger mosquitoes breeding projects, are also screened in the exhibition, with the artist's recent creative context comprehensively presented.
Exciting endeavors are demonstrated by each of the four young artists selected this year, and we want to thank them for their dedication in putting together the exhibitions and for presenting a diverse range of artworks for all to enjoy. Special appreciation is extended to the galleries and foundations with artworks on loan for the project. Their generosity and support have made this exhibition possible.
Ping Lin
Director, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Exhibition Concept
Kosmos was born of the eponymous treatise of the famous German polymath and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. His broad, unifying mind is characteristic of the 19th century "universal man". Humboldt refined the methods used for doing proper research and revealing the inner workings of Nature, such as the precision in collection of samples and measurement of data. He believed that all organic bodies were in some way connected. Such an idea completely revolutionized the way we thought about cosystems. Not satisfied merely being a scientist, Humboldt was also an avid traveler and a romantic explorer. His travels pushed out to the borders of the empire, and clearly marked out the borders between a technological civilization and a primeval society. This exhibition combines several cross-disciplinary paintings by Ting-Tong Chang. The artist uses a variety of mediums, including kinetic installations, film, and drawings, to lay out historical research on a variety of subjects, from the breeding of the sturgeon, tobacco cutworms, and Asian tiger mosquitoes, to the Archaeans and automatons. Visitors are welcome to visit this fascinating universe he has created. Similar in method to the scientists of the 19th century, when visitors travel through the exhibition space, the contradictory, the conflictfilled network of space time, moving in this space from the analogue to the digital, from the past to the future; in a space neither Chinese nor Western, at once scientific and magical, antique and modern.
CONTENTS
04-Foreword
07-Exhibition Concept
08-"Kosmos" Left in an Art Museum
16-Kinetic Installation
28-Ting-Tong Chang's Simulation Game (II): Automata
38-Eloi & Morlock
46-Drawing
62-Video