Wish Sphere

DURATION: 2016-11-05 ~ 2016-11-22
OPENING: 2016-11-05
VENUE: 興巴士藝術中心
ADDRESS: 31, Jalan Gurdwara, George Town, 10300 George Town, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Curators： CHENG Shao-Hung WANG Pinpin Artists： YAO Jui-Chung + Lost Society Document Sandy Hsiu-Chih LO CHEN I-Hsuen LEE Pei-Yu TAN Kian Ming Sphere is a character in novelist Ping Lu’s fiction Taiwan Miracle. Published in 1991, the story depicting Taiwan has become the most influence country on earth, by its economic boom just like USA in reality in the 20 century. The story reflect the overexploitation, rapacious of modern society, and by reversing the status of reality, story dealing with the issue of cultural and economical colonization with the problem of capitalism. Organiser : VT ARTSALON Host : Hin Bus Depot Sponsor：National Culture and Arts Foundation, Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government Sphere is a fictional figure created by Taiwanese novelist Ping Lu in a short story, The Taiwan Miracle, published in 1991. Sphere was set as a New York Times columnist. He coined the term “Taiwanize, Taiwanization” to describe a series of chaos in American society that people crazily follow the Taiwanese trend. At the very beginning of the novel, it starts with “this article is dedicated to our miraculous economic development.” The line indicates the author’s ironic tone when composing. Meanwhile, the story echoes Taiwan’s social phenomena since the 80s and the power and cultural structure that chase and depend upon the United States. Nevertheless, the plot totally goes rather the other way round. It depicts the extreme Taiwanization in American society. And the craze could be told from the ultimate admiration and imitation of Taiwan’s culture, entertainment and material. In the satiric sense, the author on one hand deals with issues of Taiwan’s Americanization, and on the other hand, brings up important questions of international relation at both the center and the periphery. Here, we see a new mode of colonization emerged after WWII which is a penetrating force integrating history, military and economic power. The new mode contains the development of a nation in every aspect, and further shapes the local collective desire. So, we may conclude that the term “Taiwanization” actually connotes countless corresponding countries. Although the story lies on the relation between Taiwan and the United States, it actually brings out a global issue that connects the whole world. The term invented by wise Sphere is actually talking about the development of power, economy and culture in contemporary world and origin of these sufferings. This exhibition refers to the path and issues of The Taiwan Miracle. Starting from the discussion of local society, politics, economy and environment, it then reflects current problems in Asia and the whole world, for instance, capitalism, developmentalism, regional power struggle and flow, culture and economic colonization. Four Taiwanese artists and one Malay artist are invited to participate in this exhibition. They are YAO Jui-Chung, LO Hsiu-Chih , CHEN I-Hsuen, LEE Pei-Yu, and TAN Kian-Ming. The exhibition will take place in Hin Bus Depot Art Center in Penang, Malaysia. Forums will also be held. Mirage Project and its documentary are done by YAO Jui-Chung, Lost Society Document and LO Hsiu-Chih. They extend the investigation of disused spaces from Taiwan to Malaysia. Besides presenting results of years of investigation in Taiwan, they also invite audience in Malaysia to participate in the investigation, and further comparing disused spaces in these two countries and the relationship of power structure under the developmentalism behind these spaces. CHEN I-Hsuen makes a special edition of Still Life Analysis II: The Island for this exhibition exclusively. The work is derived from large outdoor advertising, presenting temporary residences built by vagrants with trash and wastes. Meanwhile, the artist rewrites real estate advertising copy into poems. With these poems, CHEN juxtaposes bourgeoisie’s desire toward ideal living and reality of those marginalized people’s living outdoor. In this work, he addresses a question of what “islander” is. In Come eat polluted earth, LEE Pei-Yu collects industrial contaminated soils from different areas, such as Mailiao township, the Erren River, Formosa Plastics Group ‘s Fifth Naphtha Cracker and Sixth Naphtha Cracker, and area of Nansing Project in Da Lin Pu, Kaohsiung. The artist makes these soils into glazed earthenware bowls, and then serves the meal she cooked in these bowls for her audience. As specimens of the truth of pollution, the earthenware bowls are connected with our daily life through artistic action. Participants are forced to face the fact of pollution in the concern of food safety. Inspired by participation in social campaign in Taiwan, Malay artist TAN Kian-Ming observes the connection between movements and roads, and then created the work Adjustment. He copy road marking Chinese characters such as turn (轉), exclusive(專) and use(用) which are commonly seen on roads onto aluminum foil by rubbing. CHEN removes these characters from their original function and transplants them into the context of display, conservation and preservation. This action is like researching and conserving ancient civilization in a fictional and mysterious way of depicting the contemporary world.