Habitation and Elsewhere: Image as Instrument-Experimental Media Art Festival in Taiwan 2015（ EX!T 6 )
Solo Exhibition Au Sow Yee
Habitation and Elsewhere is a measurement project that treats images as the instrument and the psychological geography of Malaysia (the birthplace of the artist) as the orientation. On the imaginary path to modernization, the unquestioned spiritual dimension and geographical boundaries within Asia are reassessed in the form of images.
Habitation and Elsewhere seeks to address the following issues that interweave aesthetics with the reality. Firstly, many Asian regions are confronted with various problems concerning migration and implosion on their path to modernization. How should contemporary art respond to, investigate, and challenge these problems and thereby negotiate for a new boundary of Asia? Secondly, is it possible for artistic practice to rejuvenate a system and further subvert and reimagine the political structure on which the system is based? Thirdly, in terms of image and locality, in what way can art deal with images or perpetuate the tradition of images provided that art produces neither “reality” nor “truth”? Fourthly, how can such kind of artistic production respond to the reality, particularly the reality in places having long-standing folklore and folk beliefs? Fifthly, in terms of image and rights, Hito Steyerl has pointed out that “documentality is the pivotal point, where forms of documentary truth production turn into government—or vice versa.” In other words, the production of images dominates contemporary media. How can artists utilize media images to unveil or criticize the instruments of power manipulation and media propaganda?
Image machines and tools were once assigned the task of measuring in the long history of implements. Treating images as the point of departure, Habitation and Elsewhere tries to transform the instrument of measuring into that of calling for action. The term “measuring” usually refers to constructing the profile of things with a modularized mechanism. However, the measuring with images as the instrument in Habitation and Elsewhere is carried out by treating the artist’s own body as the reference coordinates, which removes the sham objective observation and posture between the artist and the objects being measured. This approach further turns the artist herself and the landscape of her cultural imagination into the objects to be measured. This project thus attempts to extend and enrich the connotation of “image,” particularly that of those flickering after-images lingering in our consciousness in the course of modernization.
Bio
Au Sow-Yee was born and grew up in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, she now lives and work in Taipei, Taiwan. Graduated from Chinese Culture University (Taiwan) majored in theatre arts and attained her M.F.A degree from San Francisco Art Institute (U.S.A). She is currently a graduate student in the Graduate School of New Media Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts.
Her works concentrated mainly on two directions, one is the continue interest in image making mechanism, creating live cinema performance using self-made mechanism and mechanical film projectors. Second is to question, explore as well as expand the relation between images, image making, politics and power, through video installation and other mediums. Sow-Yee’s works were exhibited in official selection of Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul (ExiS), Bangkok Experimental Film and Video Festival, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Centre (U.S.A), New York Squeeky Wheels Video Festivaland etc. She was invited to present a live cinema performance Songlines in the 2009 Guling Street International Little Theatre Arts Festival, live cinema performance Silence in the 2010 Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
She was the programmer for the 2010 and 2011 KLEX (Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival) and has also collaborated with various theatre companies in Macau, Malaysia and Taiwan as multimedia designer. In 2015, Sow-Yee is invited by Taipei Contemporary Art Center for a two years collaboration project, for creating a commissioned work.
Curator Bio
Guo Jau-lan is an independent curator and art critic based in Taipei. She received her doctorate in Western art history in 2006, with a primary research interest in how the American critiques constructed its anti- modernism postmodern art theory through an interpretation of Robert Rauschenberg and the American Neo-Dada art movement. As an Adjunct Associate Professor, Guo teaches Modern Art and Contemporary Art at MFA Program in New Media Art and Graduate Institute of Trans-disciplinary Arts, Taipei National University of Arts.
Her curatorial involvement began in 2006, with a focus on the cultural praxis of image、visual culture and Sound Art. She has curated numerous exhibitions including Polyphonic Mosaic: CO6 Avant-Garde Documenta (National Taiwan Museum of Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, 2006), Nostalgia for Future (2009, Taichung), Somnambulism: Phantasmagoric Fugue (Taipei, 2010), Paradise: Under RE- Construction (ISCP, New York, 2011), and Taiwanese Contemporary Art (TCA Project) (ISCP, New York, 2011), How Can I Tell You Who I Am?(Spain, 2012), Melancholy in Progress, The 3rd Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition at Hong-Gah Museum of Taipei (Co-curated with Amy Cheng , Taipei, 2012), 2015 Experimental Media Arts Festival in Taiwan: Habitation and Elsewhere(Taipei and Kuala Lumpur, 2015),Between Islands(Spain, 2015),Sound Exercise (Taipei , 2015).Jau-Lan Guo is the translator of the traditional Chinese version “Art Power” by Boris Groys.
Date
01 – 23 August 2015
Time
1.00pm- 7:00pm
Venue
Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space
