The Poetic Realm

The Poetic Realm
The Poetic Realm

2021.06.26 - 2021.12.26 | 1F-3F, Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art

Introduction

Upon hearing the word “poetic,” one might immediately think of poetry or associate it with “romantic,” “lyrical” and “symbolism,” etc. Such reflective correspondence between images has always limited our consciousness from expanding to reach more possibilities. As for “dimension,” it usually refers to using mathematical coordinates together with dots, lines and planes to map out space. It is through this conceptual process that we understand the world, become aware of the forms of things, the borders of territories before entering the fourth dimension, in which the subject of cosmic origin and time are further contemplated. Since the ancient time, innumerous physicists, philosophers, sociologists and artists have discussed about space and matter; and in the modern time, there are also theories about the multidimension, superstring theory, parallel universe, pneumatology and so on. However, these are not the theme of this exhibition.

 

In this exhibition, “poetic” refers various ways of surveying and perceiving the world and can be viewed as a process of dealing with or confronting things, a process that becomes extended and all-inclusive through a poetic quality, which can be found in the works of the twelve artists featured in this exhibition. The poetic quality is not related to any knowledge or methodologies, nor does it solely point to the appearance of visible objects. Instead, it surfaces as an unexpected crevice that suddenly makes us aware of something abstract and invisible, and possibly has its root in memory, perceptual experience or the state of being physically immersed in the surroundings when moving in the exhibition space.

 

This exhibition brings together artists from Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, the Philippines and Romania, and juxtaposes artworks portraying varied context and texture, not only showcasing the artists’ inner landscapes with interrelating implications, but also creating folds in a space previously static and now dwelled by the artworks. Nevertheless, how does the visual presentation of individual works demarcate and manifest a multifaceted, imaginative space stemming from the surrounding “emptiness”? How does it establish interconnections between the works? Being in a space of boundaryless dimension, the spectator’s body also undergoes a constantly stirring, receptive or adjusting process that perhaps reveals certain dormant matters.

Artists' Profile

 




Miwa OGASAWARA

Miwa Oagasawara (b. 1973) was born in Kyoto, Japan. In 1991, she moved to Hamburg, Germany, where she attended the University of Fine Arts Hamburg (HFBK) and received her BFA. Ogasawara’s art practice focuses an exploration of humanity and human nature that reflects people’s inner world. Although she does not intentionally highlight human figures, the human presence has never ceased to exist in her work. She looks for transient moments in everyday life and scenarios to gradually construct perceptive experiences familiar to all of us. Her work is devoid of narratives, and often replaces time, space, events and contours with hints, ambiguities, dreams and illusory memories. The use of immaterial elements – light, shadow, the boundary between interior and exterior spaces, mirror reflection – unveils a steadfast quest of the abstract, the spiritual and the invisible.

In the recent decade, she has primarily exhibited in numerous cities in Germany, including Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Ahrensburg, Wiesbaden, Bonn, etc. She has also presented solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions internationally, including KOWAREMONO (Fragile Things; Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, 2018); the mysterious device was moving forward (group exhibition, Longhouse Projects, New York, 2014); DOMANI (Tomorrow, The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2008); Beyond Silence (SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, 2013); Elle Part 3 (group exhibition, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2010); Hitorigoto (Monologue, SCAI The Bathhouse, Tokyo, 2013); and eleven masters from Hamburg (group exhibition, The German Ambassador’s Residence, London, 2007). Her works have been extensively included in the collections of art institutions worldwide, among which are the Centre Pompidou, Burger Collection (Zurich/Hong Kong), Guttman Collection (New York) and 1223 Contemporary Painting Museum (Tokyo).

Credit: Andreas Sibler






WANG Ya-Hui

Wang Ya-Hui (b. 1973) was born in Taipei. She now works and lives in Taipei, and holds an MA in Arts and Technology, Taipei National University of the Arts.

Her creative practice revolves around video, installation, photography and painting. Her use of image as her chosen medium has always centered on the border of viewer’s horizon and posed questions about the real/the virtual, the inner/outer space, the nature of image and viewing experience emerging from the intersecting point of reality and image. Thematically, her work focuses on the relationship between humans and the world in Eastern natural philosophy and related thinking while exploring the possibility of incorporating such thinking into contemporary life experiences. Therefore, her video and photography do not aim to produce or portray any certain landscape but to delineate the dynamic process of how landscape is constructed.

Wang has participated in various international artist-in-residence programs at several international art institutions, among which are Location One (New York, 2006), Cité des Arts (Paris, 2007), and the Helsinki International Artist Programme (Helsinki, 2010). Her works have been showcased and screened in multiple international exhibitions, including the Taipei Biennial (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2002), the Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai Art Museum, 2006), the Rotterdam International Film Festival (Rotterdam, 2008), the Hors Pistes Film Festival (Centre Pompidou, 2008), etc. In 2010, she was commissioned to create a large-scale spatial installation that functioned as an artist cinema to screen other artists’ works in the Taipei Biennial. In recent years, she has presented solo exhibitions at Neuer Kunstverein Giessen (Giessen, Germany) and Eslite Gallery (Taipei, Taiwan). She has also collaborated with Taipei Fine Arts Museum’s Children’s Art Education Center and exhibited her works in its educational program, “Finding Time.” Wang has been honored by the Taipei Art Awards and the Yageo Tech-Art Award.

 






Kawita VATANAJYANKUR

Kawita Vatanajyankur (b. 1987) was born in Bangkok, Thailand, where she currently lives and works. She holds a BFA from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and is the recipient of the 2018 Perspective 40 Under 40 Award and a finalist of the 2015 Jaguar Asia Pacific Tech Art Prize. Her video work featuring her performances is known for the combination of a vibrantly colorful visuality and her high-difficulty design of movements, unfurling a landscape of quotidian life with absurd vocabularies of the body. With silence, her work speaks about Thai women’s labor, both social and domestic, and at the same time, delineates memories or experiences potentially shared by all women.

Her recent solo exhibitions include Domesticated (MoCA Bangkok, 2020); Looping Paradoxes (dip contemporary art, Lugano, Switzerland, 2019); Unveil Escape (Gallery Seescape, Chiangmai, Thailand, 2019); The Repetitiveness of Work (Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, 2019); Performing Textiles (Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, 2019); Foul Play (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York, 2019); Performing Textiles (alongside the 58th Venice Biennale, Venice, 2019); The Scale of Justice (Adelaide Festival Center, Australia, 2018); Performing Textiles (Dunedin Public Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2018).

Her recent group exhibition experiences include Invisible Labor (ArtYard, New Jersey, USA, 2022); Decolonising Eurasia (Singapore National Gallery, Singapore, 2021-2022); Decolonising Eurasia (Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, 2021); Fertile Ground (Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, 2021); 2020-2021 Stories Across Rising Lands (Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, Jakarta, 2020-2021); the 14th Busan International Video Art Festival (Space Heem, Busan, Korea, 2020); No Frontiers: What Happens in Bangkok Does Not Stay in Bangkok (Espace Callot, Paris, 2020); Unconstrained Textiles: Stitching Methods, Crossing Ideas (Centre for Heritage Arts & Textile, Hong Kong, 2020).

Credit: Artist mother Atitta Vatanajyanku

 






Ana Maria MICU

Ana Maria MICU (b. 1979) was born in Botoșani, Romania, where she currently lives and works. She holds an MFA in Visual Art from the University of Art and Design of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In 2006 and 2007, Micu was shortlisted for BP Portrait Award organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, after which she exhibited in its touring exhibition throughout the UK. In 2011, she was featured in the 4th Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art. Micu’s art practice focuses on painting, through which she portrays familiar scenes in life. She incorporates personal experiences and her close environment into her work, and often engages with the multiple forms of image. The recurrent themes in her work include self-portrait, plants and interior space. By withdrawing from the bustling world of external reality, she is able to concentrate on using the body as a medium to delineate the connections and amalgamation between the self and other objects.

She has presented solo exhibitions at Anaid Art Gallery in Bucharest, Romania (Bloom, 2006; Ideal Spleen, 2007), Mind Set Art Center in Taipei (Self-portrait with Indoor Plant, 2015; A Picture on the Wall, 2018), and C-Space in Beijing, with Tender Heart, Keep Still! of 2012. In her solo exhibition in Beijing, she drew inspiration for the first time from Jia Zhangke’s cinematic works to produce her exhibition. In her works featured in this exhibition, one could see experimental approaches, such as mise en abyme (pictures within a picture) and textual insertions.

She has extensively exhibited in Taiwan, Romania, Denmark, Israel, Russia, New York, the Netherlands, Beijing, the UK, Germany and the Philippines. Her work has been shown in Colouring the Grey – The State of Mind (House of Artists, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2011); Post-Humanism (V-Art Gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2011); Colouring the Grey. The Second Wave of the Contemporary Romanian Artists (Special Projects Section of the 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Art Play, Moscow, Russia, 2011), which were curated by Cosmin Năsui. She was also showcased in Tales of the Unexpected (Dek 22, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 2010); Fast Forward (C-Projects, Hague, the Netherlands, 2009); Understatement (C-Space, Beijing, China, 2009); and Strategies of Concealing (C-Space, Beijing, China, 2008), which were curated by Maria Rus Bojan. Micu has conducted artist residencies in Barcelona (Spain), Vienna and Altaussee (Austria) among others.

 






LEE Jo-Mei

Lee Jo-Mei (b. 1985) was born in Taipei. She holds an MFA from the Department of Fine Arts, National Taiwan University of the Arts, and is currently based in Taipei. In 2015, she conducted a three-month artist residency in Sydney, Australia. The experience marked the beginning of her subsequent exploration and study of nature. Her early work created during this period, entitled Some Studies on Blue, featured eucalyptus as her subject of study, from which she started developing her creative method that combined a microcosmic nature with the creative approaches of text, delineation and reshaping.

Different from urban atmosphere, the artist is drawn to natural environment that prompts self-introspection. After returning to Taiwan from Australia, she launched a new creative series Landscape Remains in 2016, which could be viewed as a spiritual continuation of her life in foreign places. Using royal palms, a common tree species that informs Taipei’s everyday landscape, as her subject, she combines observation and studies of the leaf with drawing and paper sculpture to introduce a way of viewing “mime-specimen.” Throughout the copying and reproducing process, the species in Lee’s eyes has already surpassed limitations of life and physics, introducing more possible imageries and unveiling potential personal time through the entwining folds.

She has presented several solo exhibitions, including Landscape Remains (Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan, 2020), YI Shan Qing Yun (tamtamArt Taipei IPIX, Taipei, 2013) and Ishigaki Jima (Ping Pong Art Space, Taipei, 2009). Her group exhibition experiences include Blossom Trees in the Stone (Double Square Gallery, Taipei, 2020); Everyday Life and Landscapes of Island: Betel Nuts, Bananas, Sugar Cane and Palms (Tainan Art Museum, Tainan, 2020); Song of Island (Jeju 4.3 Peace Park, Jeju Island, 2019); The Middleman, the Backpacker, the Alien Species, and the Time Traveler (TKG+ Gallery, Taipei, 2019); [Heˊ] (Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office in New York, New York, 2018); and Tropical Cyclone (Kuandu Museum of Fines Arts, Taipei, 2017). She has been an artist-in-residence at Gihak Artlab in Hualien (2021), Artspace in Sydney (2015) and Villa Arson in Nice, France (2011-2012).

 






LIN Guan-Ming

LIN Guan-Ming (b. 1981) was born in Taipei. He holds an MFA from the Graduate Institute of Art and Technology, Taipei National University of the Arts. Having focused on video and photographic creations for a long time, Lin considers image as a way to express the imagination and thinking of how “time” can be viewed, and attempts to retrieve possible residual “memories” of image in the contemporary era of excessive image production. Since Media Cramp, Co4 Taiwan Avant-garde Documenta II of 2004, Lin’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions in Taiwan and extensively exhibited in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Paris, Fukuoka and the US. In 2008, he presented his solo exhibition, Silence Attacks, at MoCA Taipei, and became a recipient of the Taipei Arts Award. His work is included in the collection of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. In 2020, his solo exhibition, return, was a finalist in the 18th Taishin Arts Award.

His major solo and group exhibitions in recent time include Yamabaru Art Festival 2020-2021 (Ogimi Municipal Shioya Elementary School, Okinawa, Japan, 2021); Finding Time (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2020); Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition: ANIMA (Hong-gah Museum, Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020); Contemporary. SenDaiwan = Sendai + Taiwan (Kaikon Art Studio, Sendai, Japan, 2019); Art Dialogues Among Taiwan, Korea and Thailand (VT Salon, Taipei, Taiwan, 2019); Is/In Land, Mongolian – Taiwanese Contemporary Art Exchange Project (Art Space 976+, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 2018); Future Theater (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, 2018); Tropical Cyclone (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017); Local to Local (ARTFORUM RHEE, Bucheon, Korea, 2017), etc.

 






CHIU Chen-Hung

Chiu Chen-Hung (b. 1983) was born in Hualien and graduated from the Graduate School of Plastic Arts, National Taiwan University of Arts. He currently lives and works in Hualien. Chiu’s art practice revolves around installation and sculpture. As if conducting archaeological explorations, he specializes in unearthing existences and traces once existed in the past. Through abstract approaches, he re-interprets rationalized and designed rules of logic to reshape them in a vivid manner and develop an extensive memory-mending methodology.

Chiu has presented various solo exhibition and taken part in multiple group exhibitions in recent years, including Phototaxis (Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2019), The Dust of Time (YIRI ARTS, Taipei, 2017), A Deer of Nine Colors (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, 2015), Asian Art Biennial – The Strangers from beyond the Mountain and the Sea (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, 2019), Island Tales: Taiwan and Australia (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2019), The Hidden South (DaWu Waterfront Park, Taitung, 2018), Shattered Sanctity (MOCA Taipei, Taipei, 2017), Taiwan Biennial: The Possibility of an Island (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, 2016), Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin/Madrid (La Gaîté lyrique, Paris; Reina Sofia National Museum Madrid, Madrid; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2015), Liverpool Biennial (LJMU Copperas Hills, Liverpool, 2012), THAITAI: A Measure of Understanding (Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, 2012), and Taiwan Calling – The Phantom of The Liberty (Mücsarnok Museum, Budapest, 2010). He conducted artist residencies at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany in 2019 and Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France in 2012.

 






HSU Jui-Chien

Hsu Jui-Chien (b. 1994) was born in Miaoli. He holds an MFA in Sculpture from National Taiwan University of Arts. At first glance, Hsu’s work appears well-executed and rational, characterized by joining lines, planes and masses that seem to follow a certain indisputable logic. However, what the artist seeks is in fact a sensibility emerging from physical actions and material components. He deconstructs the underlying principle of everyday objects, restoring them to an uncertain state to be re-perceived from a detached or unfamiliar perspective. Through interaction with objects, the interrelation between objects and actions, the friction, separation and reshaped time, his audience are presented a new possibility of re-reading material to awaken an unknown awareness beyond material mass and ongoing actions.

Hsu has presented various solo exhibitions in recent years, including Set a Blank (Kalos Gallery, Taipei, 2020); Gradient 13% (Nunu Fine Art, Taipei, 2020); A layer goes through a layer (IT Park, Taipei, 2020); Sway 3mm (Taipei Dangdai, Taipei, 2020); 97KG Magic Carpet (FreeS Art Space, Taipei, 2019); 17-131 km/h Friction (Soka Art, Tainan, 2019); and Resonance (Gaiart, Taipei, 2018). He has also been featured in numerous recent group exhibitions, among which are Blossom Trees in the Stone (Double Square Gallery, Taipei, 2020); Steel Cement Glass (Mwoo, Taipei, 2020); To Martian Anthropologists (New Taipei City Arts Center, New Taipei City, 2020); An Emptiness of Language (Jazz Image, Taipei, 2020); Rehearsal Reversal - Theater Zone in Life (Juming Museum, New Taipei City, 2020); Sui Generis: Jing-Pai of Taiwan PART II (IT Park, Taipei, 2019); Orogeny (Kalos Gallery, Taipei, 2018); and Artificial Scenes (Yo-Chang Art Museum, New Taipei City, 2018). He is the recipient of the 2017 SANCF Award (Plastic Arts), the 2019 Next Art Tainan (Merit Award), the 2019 Kaohsiung Award (Excellent Work Award – Spatial Art) and the 2019 Taipei Art Awards.

 

 






Yoshihiro SUDA

Yoshihiro SUDA (b. 1969) was born in Yamanashi Prefecture at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan. In 1992, he received his BFA in Graphic Design from Tama Art University, Tokyo. He now lives and works in Tokyo. In early 1990, Suda became interested in wooden plant sculptures. His work is influenced by Japanese traditional craft of carving, which has not only sharpened his sensitivity to details, but also brought his attention to the symbiotic relationship between Buddhist sculptures and the temple space. He believes that making lifelike sculptural objects is not the ultimate objective of art making; instead, these sculptural objects need to be placed at suitable spots to be considered complete. Be it weed or single-stem flowers, Suda has always picked unexpected sites to install his works, such as by a window or in a wall crevice, through which he contemplates on how they might be “unnoticed” in the eye of the spectator.

In 1993, Suda presented his first solo exhibition, Ginza Weed Theory, in a rental truck parked on a street in Ginza, Tokyo. Since then, his work has garnered much recognition that brought him to hold exhibitions in Japan and abroad. His works have been showcased at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Kyoto Art Center (Kyoto Biennale), etc. His works have also been extensively included in art collections worldwide, including 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Japan); the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Japan); Leeum (Seoul, Korea); Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia); National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa); The New Art Gallery Walsall (UK); Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico), etc.

In recent years, he has presented solo exhibitions at Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Clematis no Oka, Shizuoka, Japan, 2018); Galería Elvira González (Madrid, Spain, 2017); Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art (Nantou, Taiwan, 2017); 107 S-chanf (S-chanf, Switzerland, 2016); Galerie René Blouin (Montreal, Canada, 2016); Galerie Loock (Berlin, Germany, 2015); the International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia, 2014); Muzeum Sztuki i Techniki Japońskiej Manggha (Kraków, Poland, 2011); D'Amelio Terras Gallery (New York, 2009); Honolulu Museum of Art (Hawaii, USA, 2009); Galeria Fortes Vilaça, Galeria Leme (São Paulo, Brazil, 2008); Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France, 2004), etc.

 






YANG Chi-Chuan

Yang Chi-Chuan (b. 1985) was born in Taipei. Yang graduated from l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and is now based in Taipei. She explores relations among people, places, objects and events through treating memory as a source of knowledge and a medium, embodying it in material or non-material form to convey her sensitivity and narrative expression. She often employs the approach of storytelling to create a warm duration in her sculpture or installation to subtly engage in a wide range of questions regarding life, family, politics, urban environment and cultural texture.

Yang has exhibited extensively in Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, China, etc. Her solo exhibitions include Plastonki (Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2020); Have a Good Day—YANG Chi-Chuan Solo Exhibition (Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, 2017); Tick-Tock (Things That Can Happen, Hong Kong, 2017); Essays During the Night (Ju Ming Museum, Taipei, 2017); √YANG, CHI-CHUAN (Radicalsign, Taipei, 2016); and Specimen (Nanhai Gallery, Taipei, 2014). She has also participated in various group exhibitions in recent years, among which are Housing Things (Yo-Chang Art Museum, NTUA: NTUA Art Village and 9 Art Space, Taipei, 2021); Detour (Taipei Artist Village, Taipei, 2021); Re-visiting Landscape (Chiayi Art Museum, Chiayi, 2020); and Island Tales: Taiwan and Australia | Taipei←→Perth (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, 2019). She has conducted artist residencies at Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2020), Things That Can Happen (Hong Kong, 2017) and Grey Projects (Singapore, 2016).






Marina CRUZ

Marina CRUZ (b. 1982) was born in Hagonoy in the Municipality of Bulacan in the Philippines, where she is currently based. She graduated cum laude from the College of Fine Arts, University of the Philippines in 2003. Her art practice spans across a wide range of media, including painting, photography, embroidery, sculpture and writing. In 2002, she unexpectedly discovered her mother’s childhood dresses in her grandmother’s wardrobe. These time-worn clothes were no longer what they used to be. Although their wearer has been absent for years, the artist has since then become fascinated with the texture of transient life connecting people and objects. She therefore reorganized the clothes sewn and made by her grandmother for her twin daughters, which have become a recurrent theme in her creative work.

In 2008, Cruz became a recipient of the Ateneo Art Award in the Philippines with her Embroidered Landscape of My Mother’s Life: A Biography and was offered an opportunity to visit the Visual Arts Center of La Trobe University in Australia as a visiting artist. The opportunity opened windows for her to be seen on the international art scene, in which she has remained active. In the same year, she was also honored by the Grand Prize of the Philippine Art Awards and the Morris Awards. She is also a recipient of the 2012 Thirteen Artists Award.

Her recent solo exhibitions include Tide Table (Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan, 2021); Read between the Lines (Galerie Ernst Hilger, Vienna, Austria, 2019); Material Maternal (Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan, 2017); Breathing Patterns, Solo Presentation and Book Launch (A3 at ASIA NOW, Paris, France, 2017); Mend and Amends (A3, Berlin, Germany, 2016); Loose Threads (1335MABINI, Manila, the Philippines, 2015); Wear and Tear (Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan, 2015); and Embroidered Landscapes (La Trobe Visual Arts Center, Bendigo, Australia, 2008). She has also been extensively featured in group exhibitions, among which are Renaissance – Marina CRUZ, Rao FU and SHI Jin-Hua (Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020); Closer than they appear (Yavuz Gallery, Singapore & Sydney, Australia, 2020); Possibility of an Island (Cromwell Place, London, UK, 2020); Passion and Procession (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 2017); Wasak!: Filipino Art Today (Arndt Art Agency, Berlin, Germany, 2016); The Philippines Contemporary: To Scale the Past and the Possible (Metropolitan Museum of Manila, Manila, the Philippines); Looking Back (Drawing Room and Ark Galerie, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2010); and Sentimental Value (SOKA Art Center, Beijing, China, 2008).

 






Hiraki SAWA

Hiraki SAWA (b. 1977) was born in Ishikawa Prefecture, and currently based in London, United Kingdom. He holds a BFA from the University of East London and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London. Sawa’s video work is related to the experience, memory and subconscious of his own or people around him. He specializes in arranging visual elements, which are combined to create dreamlike scenes to subvert our perceptions of the familiar world while conjuring up uncanny spatial-temporal relationships.

Sawa’s works have been featured in the Sapporo International Art Festival (2017), Biennale de Lyon (2013), Biennale of Sydney (2010), Busan Biennale (2008), Yokohama Triennale (2005), etc. His works are included in various art collections, among which are Takamatsu City Museum of Art; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; Mori Art Museum; National Museum of Art, Osaka; Arts Council Collection, Hayward Gallery; CAB, Burgos; Detroit Institute of Arts; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; and the Museum of Modern Art, Fort Worth.

His recent solo exhibitions include dwelling/home (Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, 2021); absent (Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, 2020); Memoria Paralela (Museo Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, 2019); fantasmagoria (Parafin, London, 2018); fragments (Vincom Centre for Contemporary Art, Hanoi, Vietnam, 2018); Latent image revealed (Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Yokohama, Japan, 2018); man in camera (Parafin, London, 2016); and Terrain (Project Fulfill Art Space, Taipei, 2015). His recent group exhibitions include Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition: ANIMA (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab & Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, 2020); Noire Lumière (How Museum, Shanghai, China, 2020); Valladolid Film and Music Festival (Valladolid, Spain, 2020); Resistance of the Sleepers (UCCA Dune, Beidaihe, China, 2020), etc.

 

Photos

  • Miwa Ogasawara│Reflexion│Oil on canvas│200x200cm│2009

  • Wang Ya-Hui │Leaf holes no.5│Giclée prints on semigloss│37.5x50cm│2011

  • Kawita Vatanajyankur│Shuttle│Performing Textiles Series│HD Video│3min 30sec│Project Fulfill Art Space Collection

  • Ana Maria Micu│window...The billions on billions │Oil and acrylic on canvas│49 x 69 cm│ 2014│Private Collection

  • Lee Jo-Mei│Landscape Remain-00│Carbon paper, gold pigment, aluminum backframe│70 x 66 cm│2019

  • Lin Guan-Ming│High-definition Blur│HD, color, silent│5’30’’, loop│2019

  • Chiu Chen-Hung│Daylighting 11│Relief Concrete, putty│40x40x8cm│2021

  • Jui-Chien│Bathroom – Separated Dry and Wet Zones│Glass, soap, iron, towel, stainless steel│Dimensions variable│ 2021

  • Yoshihiro Suda│Weeds│Paint on wood│ Dimensions variable│2015│Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art Collection

  • Yang Chi-Chuan│Plastonki—Journey│Sound, ceramic, composite material, sand│Dimensions variable │2021

  • Marina Cruz│Breathing Patterns│Oil and embroidery on canvas│135.2x105cm│2016│Private collection

  • Private collection│did I? │Single-channel video, b&w, stereo sound│9'50" │2011│Private Collection

  • Miwa Ogasawara│Reflexion│Oil on canvas│200x200cm│2009
  • Wang Ya-Hui │Leaf holes no.5│Giclée prints on semigloss│37.5x50cm│2011
  • Kawita Vatanajyankur│Shuttle│Performing Textiles Series│HD Video│3min 30sec│Project Fulfill Art Space Collection
  • Ana Maria Micu│window...The billions on billions │Oil and acrylic on canvas│49 x 69 cm│ 2014│Private Collection
  • Lee Jo-Mei│Landscape Remain-00│Carbon paper, gold pigment, aluminum backframe│70 x 66 cm│2019
  • Lin Guan-Ming│High-definition Blur│HD, color, silent│5’30’’, loop│2019
  • Chiu Chen-Hung│Daylighting 11│Relief Concrete, putty│40x40x8cm│2021
  • Jui-Chien│Bathroom – Separated Dry and Wet Zones│Glass, soap, iron, towel, stainless steel│Dimensions variable│ 2021
  • Yoshihiro Suda│Weeds│Paint on wood│ Dimensions variable│2015│Yu-Hsiu Museum of Art Collection
  • Yang Chi-Chuan│Plastonki—Journey│Sound, ceramic, composite material, sand│Dimensions variable │2021
  • Marina Cruz│Breathing Patterns│Oil and embroidery on canvas│135.2x105cm│2016│Private collection
  • Private collection│did I? │Single-channel video, b&w, stereo sound│9'50

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