Steel Construction Ⅱ : Nature, Space and Intermediary

Exhibition Description

With economic growth and social advancement, human life has transitioned from the natural and primitive lifestyle in the past to a new lifestyle in the modern world of industrial and technological civilization. Especially with the rapid development of industrial technology and machinery, people have rapidly achieved material abundance. Mankind’s behaviors, labor, operation, and thinking, have all conformed to and been driven by machine automation and systematic operation. As an artist, how to interpret the value of the zeitgeist of this age? And also express the hidden conflict and contradiction between nature and technology? The truth is, technological inventions have already influenced cultural development, especially with the emergence of kinetic art in the 1950s, which emphasizes formal mobility, rationality and perception; the manifested aesthetic meaning is to enhance the perceptive power of art through mechanical kinetics. it is the expression through which art responds to the temporality of science and technology, which is also a great breakthrough in the revolution of art.

This exhibition features mainly creations of kinetic sculpture, but it is also a continuation of my personal creative pursuit. The truth is, static and kinetic sculptures are relative concepts, and the physical properties of their existences are different, leading to different modes of reading. Therefore, in this 100-ping (330 m2) square space, I exhibit 15 works of different expressive themes, making it one of my largest exhibitions in terms of number of exhibits. Although the exhibition includes some works I have exhibited before, this also shows the extension of my pursuit in art, expanding creative subjectivity to achieve comprehensive development. In other words, each work has own integral forms, but when they are collectively exhibited in this specific space, they are converted into elements with the different arrangements and formal languages under the coordination of the spatial tonality. With each other, they dialogue, penetrate, permeate, interweave, and fuse, but they can still accentuate own content, while also permeating into and resonating with the shared space to form an entity, allowing the connections between the works to permeate both inwardly and outwardly, so that when audience walk around and read the works, they are guided by the determined route, which enhances the extended site-specific tensions of the sculptures.

The main appeal of ordinary static sculptures is the relationship between the form and space, creating meaning for the sculpture within the space. Kinetic sculpture responds to real physical space from the perspective of linear time, emphasizing the dynamic variations of the work in the process. To integrate these works, other than the presentation of three-dimensional thinking, their interrelation comes from the interweaving utilization of the four-dimensional factor of “time.” Mechanical kinetic energy has given the works unique tempos, such as the timing device of “Viewing Landscape,” the interactive relationship between pauses and audience, the horizontal movement of “Dairy Cattle” or the variation of speed of the vertical elevation of “Between Up and Down,” the rotating operation of “Suit,” and the iron forest of silhouettes of “Between Rich and Lightness,” the steel material either collide to generate vibrations and sounds, or remain silent; through the fluidity of the wind generated by machine, audience can feel the airflow against their skin. Light is introduced to the venue for atmosphere, which is no longer a lighting device, but a means to expand and stretch the space. For example, in the broken body of “Body of Steel,” the light shines outwardly to create layers of shadows of trees on the walls and interwoven networks of fine shadows on the floor—these are all essential expressive elements that convey the meanings of the works in the venue. The unified tonality of the venue connects the works to present a consistent and powerful overall image; combined with sounds, lights, shadows, and kinetics, the visual, audio, tactile and interactive experiences extend the power of the works from inside to the entire spatial environment. Audience can perceive the sturdiness of the material, and the warmth of the air. That is, on the material foundation of metal, an intermediate zone is created between the environment, space, people, and machines, a strangely triggered perception of the intermediary.

Exhibition works