Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

Magical Limbo – Solo Exhibition of Wu Tienchang is yet another public demonstration of Wu Tienchang’s continuous effort at expanding his own artistic horizons. The late 80s saw his rise in the Taiwanese art scene with paintings of neo-localist imagery; at the beginning of 2000, seemingly without a backward glance, he shifted to the burgeoning medium of digital imaging, and created prominent artworks. Since then, he has once again challenged himself, developing a new creative path by integrating moving image and theatrical space. he exhibition at MOCA, Taipei showcases Wu’s penchant for the artistic through-line/creative style of remixing and juxtaposing material and images. Take the production of his artworks as an example: on the one hand, the artist singlehandedly designed and created the costumes and props needed for the performances, adhering to the tradition of handmade craftsmanship and pre-technological labor; on the other hand, he also incorporated such new technologies as liquid crystal glass and mechanical projection into the pieces in order to foster a sense of fantastical theatricality in the audience’s audio-visual experience. Another example can be seen in the filming process of all the video content in the exhibition. Wu took a minimalistic approach in the use of digital imaging media, discarding commonly used conveniences such as computerized editing and postproduction programs in favor of live performances and one-take recordings. As the creative process became more difficult, the chances for completeness and perfection in the end product were low. The approach highlighted the fact that while incorporating digital technology, the artworks also conceal a cultural mechanism with which to examine the modern tech-heavy civilization. In terms of general creative impetus, Wu’s long-term focus is on the Taiwanese collective subconscious as presented through “fake-y visuals,” as well as a certain counterfeit-prone mentality common in Taiwanese culture. Applied to his works, the artist deliberately places such opposing subjects and concepts as real/fake, illusion/reality and life/death at their tipping point, and creates a bizarre and chilling visual style through optical magic tricks and prop-based acrobatics. The result is a demonstration of contrasting discourses in sly artistic debate. Artificiality is at the core of magic tricks, but viewers usually cannot easily deny the reality they see; acrobatics is the exact opposite, because while the performance is built out of real training and work, the tremendous perceived risk often makes viewers hope for some unseen falsity. Wu’s works and overall presentation deliberately tap into the space between the visual confusion and cognitive dissonance, conjuring the viewer’s own hidden craving for this kind of unknowable charm. The realness of history is often hidden, only seen and existing as a kind of disguise. The Taiwanese, long caught in a tug-of-war between the haunted histories of the colonial and the post-colonial, has developed a predatorial instinct, a chaotic society and a collective anxiety. As an artist whose roots are in historical and cultural critique, here Wu takes a non-elitist stance and strives to bypass the pitfalls of issue-oriented art. Instead, he returns to socio-aesthetic observations and reflections, translating the lowbrow Taiwanese popular culture and religious codes into contemporary visual elements. With a dark sense of humor and the spirit of “going back to basics”, the artist summons an unreconstructable historical memory and an as-yet crumbling identity, hoping thus to reconnect with the cultural feelings and land ethics of Taiwan.