The unknowable reality

The unknowable reality:

A brief critic about Wu Shang-lin’s solo exhibition Inner Landscape

By Louise Hsu

On a warm sunny day of May in Tainan, a southern city of Taiwan, walking on the streets of Tainan, it was not difficult to find those Bungalows with western-oriental mixed styles standing in between the modern shops.  In one of the beautiful Bungalows, it launched the solo exhibition of Wu Shang-lin, Inner Landscape. The house, used as the most common family house in the past 30 years, now known as Howl Space, is an independent art center for contemporary art.  The house was renovated in a minimalist style.  In response to the space, the exhibition Inner Landscape revealed a very natural unstructured form as well. You could not find a piece of exhibition poster on the wall, neither the artist statement nor word caption.  What was presented is nothing but the artwork itself. Then you saw the visitors walking around the space casually, talking about the works pleasantly.  Somehow the “label of art” has been removed from the space. The scenes happened in the space seem to belong to the daily life of the visitors. Far beyond it’s original task of presenting artworks, what Inner Landscape in this space presents is the state of human life, as well as the spirit of the local community culture.

Following the presentation of his works like a whirlwind in recent years, shifting from many international artist villages in Europe and Asia, Wu Shang-ling has made the most important turning point in the end of 2012, that is, he built a family and welcomed their daughter to the world at the beginning of 2013.  As a result, his consideration about art could be found with a great change. 

Regarding Inner Landscape, his first solo exhibition in 2013 in Taiwan, we see Wu Shang-lin extending his survey from industry world, urban life and community relationship into a new field, which is closely related to his personal life:the family.  Concept of the exhibition was based on the space philosophy of Gaston Bachelard. To be presented are 2 installation works, for which he invited visitors to participate in the process of creation. Significantly, he intended to break up the concrete image of a family house through his sound-image installations and to reveal its true existence in emotional aspect. He also tries to fill the space with many different family’s peceptions and memories collected from the participators. In this way, the house is able to leave its own past behind and to experience the entire new life as an art center.

The first installation was a platform located near the entrance. Some soft toy bricks were spread casually on the ground. Visitors were invited to sit on the ground and played with the soft bricks. Most of them took the bricks to build up their ideal houses. While they were playing, they could hear audio records taken by the artist. The voices were broadcast through the loudspeakers hung on the wall. They heard others talking about their own family stories or ideas about “what is a family”.

The second installation placed in the next room presented family photos of the house owner. This work means to represent the emotional connection between the house and the family members. The house, used as home and small factory in the past 30 years, has witnessed both the growing of the family and the living situation of the age of economic boom in Taiwan 30 years ago. Feelings and memories are embraced at the same time in the house. The artist was obligated to represent this special atmosphere with the photos that the family has given.  However, the owner did not want the faces on the photos to be identified for the reason of privacy. Therefore, Wu Shang-lin decided to blur the faces, only to recreate an unfocused effect on the photo.

A Photo is known as a still image of an object or action. However a blurred image on a still photo disclosures the existence of “speed and motion”.  The photos that Wu Shang-ling recreates with blurring effect reveal the first step of the interesting co-existence of “still and motion”. Two phenomena, which are not able to be experienced at one time according to the theory of phenomena world of Kant,[1] are frozen on one photo as a still image. Creation and recreation, the ability of art which can defeat the rules of rational world, has been proved by this work.

After blurring the faces, it’s impossible to recognize the persons on the photos. The visitors who see the photos without knowing the background of the house and the family will only have the impression to the images, which are slightly fading, and seem to carve someone’s memories. Among all, it’s someone who is a stranger, and is totally unrelated to the viewer. So the viewers can create a new life for the one with incredible imagination. 

In his early photo paintings, the German painter Gehard Richter always defaced the figures with blurring skill to remove the “identity tag” of the figure.[2] “I blur things to make everything equally important and equally unimportant,”[3] The statement of Richter expresses his intention to decrease the importance of the “real identity” of the figures. Furthermore, he admits his incapacity of presenting and representing “reality”. [4] Like Richter, Wu Shang-lin gives up to present the photos as they really are. He blurs the faces to confuse people when trying to recognize the figures. Consequently, this action evokes the interests of viewers even more. The blurred faces on the photos catch the eyes of the viewers and bring them even closer to seek for the “reality” behind the images

Is it real? How real is it? These questions come often from the viewers when seeing seemingly realistic presentation of art. Susan Sontag overthrows the existence of absolute reality by saying “photographs are a way of imprisoning reality”.[5] Wu Shang-lin frees the “prison” in the way of erasing the identity of the faces. Not only the family photos, but also the platform installation are dedicated to break up the stereotype of a family. He invites people to join the creation of the work and to enrich the space with more stories, memories and associations. Meanwhile, his efforts to create the atmosphere of poetic abstraction for the images should not be neglected in any way.

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[1] Ralph Blumenan, Kant and the Thing in Itself, Philosophy Now, Issue 31, May/Jun 2013, http://philosophynow.org/issues/31/Kant_and_the_Thing_in_Itself

[2] Moira Weigel, The painted illusions of Gerhard Richter, The Guardian, Saturday 25 April 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/apr/25/gerhard-richter-painting

[3] Gerhard Richter: Text, Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007, Thames &Hudson, London, 2009, P33, http://www.gerhard-richter.com/quotes/techniques-5

[4] “I can make no statement about reality clearer than my own relationship to reality; and this has a great deal to do with imprecision, uncertainty, transience, incompleteness, or whatever. But this doesn't explain the pictures. At best it explains what led to their being painted.” Gerhard Richter: Text, Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007, Thames &Hudson, London, 2009, P60, http://www.gerhard-richter.com/quotes/techniques-5

[5] Susan Sontag, On Photography, New York, 1977, P.85