‘’Steel Super’’ Kaohsiung International Steel & Iron Sculpture Festival

About the work

Po-Chun Liu very straightforwardly decided to choose the symbols of trees and clouds for the focal point of this piece. The main media of this artwork are long flat steel plates, replicated by industrial mass production methods, and the raw leftover metals from smelting, which were cut out into silhouettes using the flame cutting method. Firstly, the ground was paved with steel clouds of varying sizes to form a long trail. Simplified tree shapes, meant to resemble the towering, high-mountain ancient trees, are split in half and placed along this trail, with enough space between each piece for people to pass through. At the top of these stiff, vertical tree shapes, Liu has draped lines resembling clouds made from slabs of raw leftover metals from the smelting process: these lines were cut from the outside in, like a topographic map, and then linked together horizontally. His final product allows for the interaction of his materials with the environment, as well as highlights the depicted connection between the earth and the sky.

Therefore, the design of this piece, with its layered interpretations of symbols from nature, somewhat resembles a sketch of a jungle scene. However, due to the industrial nature of the material, it also symbolizes a human-made reproduction of our natural surroundings, or even an imaginary, virtual, grotesque scene. The art piece is a space of personal and subjective thinking, a polymorphous “site” that viewers are beckoned upon to roam into. When viewers participate and interact with this work, they also become one of the elements of the work being observed. This state of focality grants In the Clouds with a force that emanates from the inside out, extending to encompass the entire space. It is a “human-made aesthetic scene of nature” tailored by Liu to suit the modern industrial social environment and cultural background.