text by Amy Huei-hwa Cheng
In the picture Taipei City center is presented at a fixed point in space and time, empty of people and cars. Time is frozen, space disassociated. On one level it seems as if this snapshot, devoid of people as it is, has any meaning. But at the same time, we also ask what this space says to those in Taipei, who are used to thinking of the city center as an area of vibrant bustling energy. Perhaps on reflection, the more crowded a place is the more lonely we feel.
Yuan Goang-ming’s new work from 2001, “Human Disqualified,” is very different to his earlier pieces and as such represents a successful breakthrough or experiment. The detailed creative logic of the piece follows the same creative pulse evident in the artist’s earlier work with video art, whilst presenting the audience with an entirely new visual experience. Still, it is in terms of expressive content and media that the works presented in this solo exhibition most attract the attention of the audience. Yuan talks of: “…wanting to return to or recover an aesthetic plain itself,” that is something to be found both in content and media. Of course, at a time when technological media attracts considerable attention and there is a proliferation of information or issue related works, any discussion of pure aesthetics can easily seem old fashioned or out dated, but as those of the 19th Century Pointillist artist Georges Seurat, Yuan displayed the same kind of patience by taking a total of two months to take over 300 photographs. After selection and computer processing the photographs, the pictures took shape one dot at a time. Like a religious practitioner the artist invests both his time and energy, to see what his creative spirit produces.
It would be wrong to compare the works of Yuan Goang-ming and Georges Seurat, but still the importance of time and the experimental nature of the creative methodology adopted by both, inevitably link them together. It was only after gaining an understanding of the way in which the retina differentiated color that Seurat developed an entirely new painting technique, applying his own experience to express situations. Whether his technique for mixing colors honestly depicted “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” the points that make up the work actually seem to transcend time and space and therein possess the ability to freeze frame or drop frames from the picture. Returning to the streets of Taipei in 2001, a time of technological consumption and technical revolution similar to that experienced when Saurat discovered the secrets of shadow and light. Despite the use of a different media the artistic pursuit remains the same. It is possible that Saurat never imagined his new technique would create the impression of frozen motion or the creation of sublimity behind the sequence of time. In contrast, the stopping of motion and dropped frame effect are specifically sought after in Yuan Goang-ming’s new work. If we are to find anything in these works then it is necessary to detach ourselves from the normal order of time and space, to locate ourselves in an environment without landmarks, to experience a moment that exists in a different dimension and is difficult to observe. This is a lost phase in the course of life that Yuan has been able to capture.
Discussing the origin of the title of his work “Human Disqualified” Yuan Goang-ming elaborates on the content and technique involved: “Human Disqualified” was originally the name of a novel by the famous Japanese author, Dazai Osamu, translated into Chinese as “losing the right to be human”. The term “lost” (disqualified) or “dropped frame” is a technical film editing term. In this sense, the term “disqualified” can also be understood in the technical sense above as “an incomplete representation of original materials”. These two directions provide clues relating to the work. Through these it is possible to probe the nature of being “disqualified” in an era where technology dominates, using the images of the material world to expose certain abstract feelings. Yuan suggests: “Without the development of digital technology it would be impossible to show such things.” He makes use of the distinctiveness of a product of modern times (digital technology) to discuss an issue pursued by man since ancient times: In a material environment where is the human spirit or soul to be found? In the picture, non-specific emotions are made concrete through the vehicle of digital images. When photography was first invented many believed that the camera had the power to capture the human soul. The sense of unease this technology and its ability to transcend human abilities gave rise to, ultimately led to photography been associated in the minds of many with the supernatural powers of witchcraft. Today such superstitions no longer pertain and we are perhaps no longer afraid of digital technology, but if we can use it to view and more directly express facets of the human soul, is this not also a new form of black magic with the power to bewitch the human mind? Looking at this work we are brought face to face with an indescribably scenario, hidden in the depths of the soul. What in most cases requires experience of mystery through semiotics, scenarios and symbols is here simplified to a direct image, with nothing hidden and no semantics, resembling a new mystery of the spirit.
For Yuan Goang-ming the greatest challenge with this work may well have been returning to the two dimensional media of photography, that is experimenting with another format other than video art. Although the use of digital techniques in art is no longer unusual, it does have special meaning to the artist himself. In this sense, this series of works may well mark the start of a new creative period for Yuan.
Yuan does not seek to make a point through the media and techniques employed, these are in effect just his tools of choice. First he takes several hundred photographs of the center of Taipei City and then creates pictures of streets devoid of people and cars using digital methodology. Digital editing techniques are much more invasive than simple video images as the artist can freely infuse any apparently objective scene with his own ideas. In consequence, the problem of distinguishing between real and false is much more complex. Yuan observes: “This work cannot be described as either virtual or representational.” His creative approach and the time and space invested reflect a certain reality about our present era and place, whilst on the other hand showing an alternative “non unreal” aspect of that time and place through transformations achieved through the subjective consciousness. For Yuan this is not a discussion of logic, preferring instead to accurately display a hidden psychological condition in his work. It is this condition that attracts the empathy of the audience – in a bustling place full of people we can still feel as if we were all alone.
Technology opens the door of ideas and situations in the mind of the artist and thereby is a channel for revelation. In the work “Human Disqualified” the two are finely matched. In the past Yuan Goang-ming has used video art methods to express sub conscious or unconscious desires, hopes or doubts. In many ways the current work is more simple and refined (even if such a minimalist approach is not appreciated by everyone), and there is more a sense of suppressed energy than in earlier works. Though these works no longer emphasize an explanation of something, the energy (perhaps deliberately) quietly and without preparation pours through the hole of a dropped frame. A more direct visual effect is used both in terms of narrative and explanation than in earlier works such as “The Reason for Running” and “Reasons for Insomnia.” Metaphorically Yuan’s earlier works can be likened to an “attempt to express existing situations” whereas this latest piece depicts “the existing situation itself.” On the same note, Yuan has described the piece as being about “freeing oneself from dependence.” As a result, other than the surface narrative of loneliness, this work also contains much than cannot be expressed in words.
Digital photography is the basis on which the two other pieces were developed. The work “City Disqualified – Segment of Hsimen” has a feel of video art about them, but was in fact created by scanning photographic images. Any visitor needs great patience to view the pictures in their entirety, slowly and systematically facing a vision out of step with real daily life. As they view the works the audience may also need to adjust to the speed and vision presented. This inevitably creates in the minds of those viewing feelings that are in contradistinction to those habitually experienced when viewing art. This contradiction is the reason the work has such an impact – especially in the pictures that seem simultaneously tranquil yet somehow anything but tranquil.
If we look at the development of Yuan Goang-ming’s work over a number of years, then we find that each piece shares a certain commonality in terms of issues addressed and texture and this is true even of this work despite the change in media. Although it differs from Yuan’s video art over the last few years, hints of the potential for change and trend towards abstraction were identifiable in “The Black Light of Breathing” (1995) and from the interactive nature of “The Reason for Insomnia” (1998) to the developments and refinements of “Flying” (1999). However, this was not continued with the piece “Floating” in 2000 (Yuan has stated that the conceptual development of “Floating” comes from the same period as “Cage” (1995) ). Similarly, he has also eschewed the incorporation of any degree of interactivity in his new work “Human Disqualified” .
Yuan Goang-ming has stated that he hopes to achieve a creative breakthrough with his latest work and as the first step in an ongoing experiment it certainly raises further expectations in the mind of the audience for the artist’s future work. |
|
