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,
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.
“I blur things to make everything equally important and equally unimportant,”
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”.
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”.
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.