text by Ku Shih-Yung
Immediate spatial experience is the central most important element in my installation art works. In the artistic expressionism of the past, the concept of space and time has been abstract in nature, mainly pointing to a disassociation from the moment or the a-priori existence of time and space. Jean Francois Lyotard believed this gives rise to the problem of “representation” and that behind all “representation” is a source, real intention or something forgotten. As such, as soon as we descend into the mechanism of representation – the problems of the now are hidden.
The immediate spatial experience in my installation pieces is most certainly not “representation,” but something more akin to the presentation of ecstasies. Perception welcomes the “no precondition,” “reductionism,” “here and now,” “easily infectious” essence of this presentation. The question is, what type of dimensional consciousness do I use to differentiate from the ideas of the past? In other words, in what sort of space and time is my own cultural logic constructed? In the historical conceptualizations of the past, all expressive elements were controlled by the absolute “other worldly existence” of time and space. This served as the ultimate, mystical yet real call to the absolute time of those not present, transformed into the essential nature of art. It is not that the object of life is not present merely that it exists in this state, locked in an absolute “other worldly” time by the apparatus of theological desire. In turn, the worship of absolute time creates the spatial forms of art and life. In my installation pieces, I take pleasure in identifying a new type of space and time. Art expresses and presents the “this worldly nature” of time and the mutually interactive space this creates. This is true not merely because of the academic desire of installation art to reconstruct time and space, more importantly it originates in the new existential consciousness established by modern society. Humanity as a whole is turning away from the promise of absolutisms towards issues of self-existence. Such an inversion of time and space is felt most keenly by installation art, which is the perfect format to express this large and dramatic change.
In my installation art, “this worldly” time is those moments we experience personally, a new ontology of time and space. Any real life state and experience must be explored and represented. From this point a revolution takes place as it becomes necessary to separate those things that existed in absolute time from linear historical logic focusing on the state of “this worldly” time in a fragmented fashion. As such, the “this worldly nature” of time basically refers to a time consciousness made up of different times – wherein the past, present and future coexist equally, as long as they are constructed on the basis of experience in the here and now. In this way, the world “signified” by installation art is no longer a single tense or object, but a world in which multiple tenses and objects coexist. Given that all things only have meaning in “this worldly” experience, the world is no longer an external object but something that belongs to us individually, a world we can influence and are always close to. Here “presentation” replaces “representation” and “expression,” as for the first time installation art enjoys a position that makes it part of the language of life, or to put it another way it becomes life itself. |
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