Now is Nowhere

“Nowhere” is an expression that contains the dual qualities of a noun and a verb. It embodies the state of not having a location, but at the same time, refers to the inability to locate and to belong to one specific place. Now is Nowhere is my debut exhibition at IT Park. Compared to all the other art related programs that are being showcased during the same period in the world, this exhibition may seem lacking in real functionality. The situation is similar to how history is written: trivial events that are undocumented by the grand chronicle of things become insubstantial and easily forgotten. This is why Now is Nowhere falls out of the realm of consequentialism, undefined by the ruling of cause and effect. As an artist, I need to keep the exhibition in a constant fluid state. I need to continue facilitating the encounters between different stories behind each artwork. Materiality is utilized to reveal the true and false forms of historical events. A model of cultural Archetype as well as the role of Entropy in the mainstream pedigree can thus be created via legends, news covers, and imaginings for personal history.

Affect and Matter

The exhibition is composed of three new works and two previously shown pieces. Each work functions independently but is also connected to one another. Now is Nowhere is paired with Taste Memory, which was shown in Berlin, Germany a few years back. They both deal with one’s emotional attachment to certain objects that contain fragments of personal stories. Different materials are present in the pieces: straws that pierce through the remnants of an old, heritage home left from a government forced removal; betel nut juice splattered over a flickering fluorescent tube that dangles in the air. The disappearance of a home as well as the mortification of an object are both processes that stimulate a tragic breach within an emotion or a material. Despite their precarious condition, these objects retain a possibility for human affection. This emotive sense of existence presents the core “matter” that I attempt to capture within the pieces.

Heroine: Searching for White Rose

The motorcycle drag racers that used to roam the streets of Taiwan in the 80’s created a certain spirit of the time through the production of legends. If a drag racer could ambiguously stand for the virtue of loyalty and reasoning, one could not fail to identify the story of the teenage racer by the name of “White Rose” at the time: she triumphed over the male racers in every single game back then. A sense of exile and sorrow transformed her persona into a source image for artistic adaptation. Heroine: Searching for White Rose pays homage to White Rose through the tale of a young woman, A-Li, who is also fond of racing. The video shows the process of testing a ride, in which A-Li accelerated in preparation for a drift. The lines of a koi fish that was tattooed onto A-Li’s back when she was 16 reflect the tire tracks like traces on a map. Clouds of red dust are blown from the dirt path over and over again in slow motion. An anthropological file of imageries is revealed through machinery, momentum, and modern day motif.

Archaeology of Sound

The Er lin murder case took place from 1941 to 1944 in Chunghua, Taiwan. The victim, Shi A-Fan, and the offender, Lu Chung were Taiwanese soldiers recruited by the Japanese government. Lu coveted his sworn brother Shi’s wealth and murdered for money. Shi’s body was found buried in a field of sugarcanes. All evidence pointed towards Lu’s assault but Lu would not admit to the crime. The investigators had to stage a scenario in which Shi’s unrested ghost came back to haunt the guilty for Lu to finally admit to the murder. Later on, the Er lin incident was adapted to a Taiwanese Opera piece titled The Tale of Er lin. My work Murder: Er lin qi an is about the archaeology of sound. A vinyl record of The Tale of Er lin is brought back to the sugarcane field and played there. The story-filled melody mixes with the surrounding sound to create layers of clashes between different audio fields. A fracture through which multiple sets of time and space could be observed thus forms: an encounter between the ghost of Japanese Occupation Period and the ghost of quantum entanglement.

Space-Time Crystal

“That seemingly trivial year of few political unrests could very well be the year that led the Ming Dynasty to its doom,” Ray Huang wrote in his 1981 volume 1587, a Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline. Fragments of history enter an endless cycle. Tunnel effect forces these story pieces through impermeable obstacles of time and space and furthermore allows them to wonder aimlessly between the past and the present before projected to the future. An artist’s work is not unlike crystal that forms over time. The beginning stage of such crystallization would span over a longer period as the origin particle seeks out its growth path. Once a small crystal unit is formed, however, the time for further development would decrease exponentially since the first crystal unit would act as a model for further growth. This pattern reflects how history and forms repeat themselves continuously throughout human existence. What the exhibition Now is Nowhere presents is the result of the introspective methodology that I have applied to my work in the recent years. The mixed up time and space as well as the desire to capture this disorder through artistic means serve as the foundation for the unique and personal chronology that I have created. They are realized through installations of video, audio, and sculptures.