text by Chen Hui-Chiao
space is a straight line, then a sphere is an interval.
If space is a two-dimensional plane, then a sphere is an expandable disk.
It is a planet that revolves on its own axis, a golden sun, a helix galaxy made up of thousands of star clusters and nebulae.
It is the boundary of an internal space that is both open and closed - whenever we establish such a line, whether it is within ourselves or with others, we create struggle and conflict on either side of the border, leading to collapse and reorganization.
How is one to take restless anxiety and transform it into cold emotion? This is an old commitment and understanding, a minimalistic, calm and unpretentious creative language. It is a readymade object, a fundamental aspect of geometry, a surface made of arcs and colors, something I call sphere movement.
Colors for a Large Wall
Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015), one of the most influential American artists of the 20th century, is known for hard-edge painting, color-field painting and geometric abstraction. His masterpiece Colors for a Large Wall (1951) brings together modernist styles and is made up of overlapping similar elements, with the random arrangement of monochrome blocks, and free-random combinations exploring the concepts of continuity and monochromatic painting. Kelly referred to this work as Randomly Arranged Spectrum Colors I to VIII and many of his later works were inspired by this, leading him to develop his own unique abstract form. Throughout his life, Kelly emphasized the viewer's experience of their surroundings, combining different materials, colors and spaces to expand the role of abstract art in ways that transcended expressions and forms familiar to the public.
Primary Structures
On April 27, 1966, the Jewish Museum in New York held an exhibition titled Primary Structures, which played a pivotal role in the development of Minimalism as an important art movement. However, at that time the work of the 42 participating artists was seen as harsh and cold, sparking debate about basic definitions and aesthetic issues. In other words, these artists began to explore the core of their respective creative practices.
The artistic school of Minimalism, which emerged in the 1960s, is also known as Minimal Art and was a reaction to Abstract Expressionism, pushing the concept to the extreme by directly presenting the most primal objects or shapes to the viewer. The intention was to eliminate the imposition of the artist’s influence on viewer consciousness, thereby opening up space for the artwork itself in terms of conceptual imagery, which also allows the viewer to actively participate in the construction of the piece.
Subject Building
In 1978, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) building was approved for construction on a designated plot of land in Zhongshan No. 2 Park, Section 3 of Zhongshan North Road, with design and supervision by Kao Er-pan (1928-2022) architectural firm. The building has a minimalist gray-white international modernist style. Construction was completed in January 1983 and the museum officially opened on December 24 the same year.
Color, Structure, Space
Between 1984 and 1985, Spring Gallery held two space-experiment exhibitions titled Alien – Play of Space and Transcendent – Play of Space II through which nine artists explored a freer, more expansive and authentic visual experience beyond the canvas. These exhibitions sparked intense debate, with terms like “spatial revolution” and “spatial nuclear explosion” used in the media. Due to the influence of Alien – Play of Space, in August 1985 TFAM employed it as a template when it held an exhibition titled The Art of Color and Form: An Exhibition of the Avant-garde, Installation and Spatial Design.
Southern Entrance
In 2010, during the Taipei International Flora Expo, Taipei City Government sought to strengthen the connection between TFAM and “Arts Park” by adding a second entrance in the form of a corridor at the southern side of the museum linking it to Fine Arts Park. Architect Chien Hsueh-yi (1954-) infused this with the spirit of modernism and created a suspended steel and glass tubular structure that echoed the architectural form of the museum.
When the Spheres Merge in Colors for a Large Wall
In this new work, I attempted to incorporate spheres into the original color structure of Kelly's 1951 masterpiece Colors for a Large Wall, extending it through translation – creating a fluid consciousness that expands rapidly like overlapping cosmic bubbles in a vast airflow ... in the same way as space informs geometry and time speaks to psychology[1]; This piece is a tribute to the summoning of memories, the pursuit of the past and the reappearance of time from its reverse flow.
We Always Need to Create New Stories for the World
Date: 2025.01.17 - 12.21
Site: Taipei Fine Arts Museum South Entrance
Curator: Jo Hsiao
Artists: Chen Hui-Chiao, Bonqeuc Design+Clockwork Noses
Sponsor: CHANEL
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[1] In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (1871-1922) discusses a unique individual world in the first person and was published in seven volumes from 1913-1927. |
