Department of Cultural Affairs

Zhan Zhang Xu, Ting-Jung Chen, Rexy Tseng, Chu-Fang Hsiao
The 2021 TFAM solo exhibition open call received a total of 135 exhibition proposals. Four artists, Zhan Xu Zhang (張徐展), Ting-Jung Chen (陳庭榕), Rexy Tseng (曾慶強), and Chu-Fang Hsiao (蕭筑方), were shortlisted, and their exhibition proposals will be shown on the third floor of TFAM in August this year.
 
Jungle Jungle—Zhan Zhang Xu Solo Exhibition
Zhan Zhang Xu’s recent work focuses on how the locality of Taiwanese culture engages in dialogue and connection with the globalism of international culture, exploring how music changes in meaning in the process of flow, and how oral storytelling infiltrates different regions and evolves locally, seeking out the principles of cultural flow in the Mandarin language and integrating the unique attributes of similarity and difference to develop new reproductions through artistic creation. This exhibition takes as its starting point folk tales shared around the world and explores global connectivity by examining their textual similarities.
 
The works include a complete installation from the 2020 Yokohama Triennale in Japan and a brand-new animation created for Deutsche Bank Artist of the Year in 2021, both premieres in Taiwan. The exhibition will comprise works in various media, including animated video installations, paper puppet installations, and mixed media sculptures.
 
This Is A Complex Sentence—Ting-Jung Chen Solo Exhibition
The work of Ting-Jung Chen focuses on the marks of sound and power structures on memory and identity. Her solo exhibition This Is A Complex Sentence (十六分之一休止符後) is a visual manifestation of the form and symbolic quality of rhetoric, presented in a series of interlinked works.
 
Multi-channel soundscapes, dynamic installations, sculptures, and objects are combined to construct a large-scale spatial installation and a retelling of “things” produced from fragments of history and memory using frequency, rhythm, and form. Deconstructing the template of symbolic cultural artifacts and tracing how subtle individual feelings lead to collective body memories in synesthesia, amorphous personal narratives from collective memory are read aloud in quiet whispers, exploring the development of discipline using projection. Specially marked and illusory boundaries within the space highlight multiple narratives and the dimensions of an alternative spacetime, creating a unique spatial experience for the viewer and realigning their position within the information knowledge system.
 
 
Pain and Pleasure—Rexy Tseng Solo Exhibition
 
Pain and Pleasure (痛苦與歡愉) is inspired by experiences of adult life, along with daily patterns of highs and lows, swinging back and forth between hope and disappointment, and explores different forms of dark humor and unfulfilled desire.
 
The overall concept of the exhibition reflects modern-day existentialism and the possibility of only coming to terms with oneself by accepting the transience and irrationality of life. It explores in detail the entangled relationships between people, between objects, and between people and objects, swinging back and forth between moments of absurdity and sorrow, but in the process also discovering joy through mutual extensions of desire, political conflict, emotional labor, and restricted freedom. The work’s critical themes include the body, consumerism, and economic inequality.
 
Hi! Ni hao!—Hsiao Chu-Fang Solo Exhibition
The exhibited works are a continuation of the artist’s painting accumulated over many years, where charcoal sketches assume the role of handwritten notes and canvas works record the whims and emotions of daily life, much like single-frame comics—filled with drama, joy and suffering, wry laughter and self-deprecation.
 
The transformation of Hsiao Chu-Fang’s creative style in recent years breaks through the boundaries of flat acrylic painting to show more dynamic brushwork in two-dimensional works. Unlike her early rapid production using color schemes configured by computer software and flat acrylic painting, her current method extends the length of the painting process and is much more like a process of searching, hesitating to control, moving between restraint and abandon. This kind of hesitation imbues the images with more moments of difficulty, which lends them greater interest. After all, the beauty of painting is never the result of safe, calculated attempts, but rather of constant negotiation between the artist’s spirit and physical labor.
 
“Hi! Ni hao!” (hi! 你好!) is a common greeting but can have different meanings depending on changes in context or tone. The artist uses this expression to come to terms with the state of her own life, or how she would like to respond to the world, presenting her work in four parts: “Hi, everybody”, “Hi, everyday”, “Hi, life after life” and “Hi and breathe”.
 
Date: August 20–November 13
Location: Taipei Fine Arts Museum 3A and 3B (No. 181, Section 3, Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City)