SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Covered Reality: Archival Orientation and Identity in Taiwanese Contemporary Photography
15 June - 05 Jul7, 2022
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

WU Tien-Chang
CHANG May-Ling
MEI Dean-E
CHEN Chieh-Jen
CHEN Shun-Chu
YANG Teng-Chi ( Manbo Key )
YANG Shun-Fa
TOU Yun-Fei
CHOU Ching-Hui
YAO Jui-Chung + Lost Society Document + Sandy Hsiu-Chih LO
CHEN Chin-Pao
HUANG Tz-Ming
LEE Li-Chung
CHENG Ting-Ting
LAN Chung-Hsuan

Curator: Jay Chun-Chieh LAI

覆寫真實：臺灣當代攝影中的檔案與認同
15 June - 05 Jul7, 2022
國立臺灣美術館​，台中，台灣

吳天章
張美陵
梅丁衍
陳界仁
陳順築
楊登棋（登曼波）
楊順發
杜韻飛
周慶輝
姚瑞中＋失落社會檔案室＋羅秀芝
陳敬寶
黃子明
李立中
鄭亭亭
藍仲軒

策展人：​賴駿杰

View on National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts

Starting from photographs taken by an anonymous Taiwanese traveler in Germany in 1965, "The Wall" (2022) comprises a faux wall in the style of the Berlin Wall which shows enlarged prints of the photographs taken by the unknown traveler. In these images, one can see the national flag of the Republic of China waving in the German streets, an R.O.C. stall in a park in Germany, the country’s post-war urban reconstruction, the old Berlin Wall before its conversion, as well as Germany’s technological development and cultural preservation. After further research, one discovers that the Taiwanese traveler visited Germany to see the International Mobility Show in Munich that year, which was joined by the R.O.C. and its national flag was printed in the official marketing materials. The artist pastes the old poster-like prints of these photographs on the faux wall, and then covers them with street graffiti, which is considered the most direct subcultural form of occupation. The content of the graffiti, on the other hand, displays the Taiwanese consciousness, indicating the graffiti is a subcultural declaration to fight against the mainstream consciousness from a different era. However, unlike its now collapsed counterpart, the Berlin Wall, the wall that still stands erect in the exhibition denotes a form of denial. In other words, as one longs for the sight in a distant place, he or she also averts intentionally the historical sorrows which had befallen the place, losing sight of the fact that the place is known precisely because of its tragic past. Through the lens of another country’s history of division, "The Wall" is a metaphor for Taiwan’s history, as well as the multiple and divergent imaginations of its present and future.

Nine works from the photographic collage series, "A Battlefield Is a Wishful Thinking, yet a Stamp Is a Piece of Paper" (2020 - 2022), are on view in the exhibition, which are based on photographs taken by the artist during his visit to Kinmen. These photographs feature military and memorial relics and sites, such as the Kinmen Guesthouse, retired tanks, images of singer Teresa Teng’s visit to Kinmen for paying tribute and entertaining soldiers, along with other military ruins. The artist pastes old stamps, which represent a nation, onto the photographs, forming various signs, words, or meaningless patterns as a way to respond to or conceal scenes and objects of wars and battles in these “tourist” photographs. Kinmen as a battlefield has long become an impractical yearning, which is repeatedly recycled and utilized on different levels as a nostalgic instrument for political and emotional manipulation. Stamps printed with political propaganda constitute a similar instrument, which is still used to convey messages that are almost obsolete but not quite. When the two are combined in this work, they are complementary to the formation of each other’s contexts while canceling them out at the same time— the once glorious and burdened battlefield becomes a mirage, and the great ideology is eventually reduced down to a tiny, practically insignificant, piece of paper.

從一位無名臺灣人於1965年在德國所拍的旅行照片出發，〈圍牆〉（2022）搭建了一堵柏林圍牆式的展牆,並將其拍攝的照片放大輸出貼於牆面。在這些照片裡,我們會發現飄揚在德國街頭的中華民國國旗、在德國一處公園的中華民國展位、德國戰後的都市重建、改建前的舊柏林圍牆還有該國的科技發展與文化留存等景象。深入研究後，我們會發現這位臺灣人造訪德國的原因是為了參訪當年的慕尼黑車展，而中華民國也有參展，國旗被並列在了展會官方的宣傳文宣之上。當這些照片以早期海報的形式張貼於圍牆上後，覆蓋於上面的則是街頭的塗鴉覆蓋。塗鴉，是一種次文化的佔地盤的最直接方式。牆上塗鴉內容偏向臺灣意識，意指了該內容作為一種次文化的宣示，試圖反抗另一個時空的主流意識。然而這面圍牆還未如柏林圍牆坍倒，仍然矗立著的它依舊代表了一種拒絕性。又或者說，我們嚮往遠方的景象，卻又意圖避開那裡曾發生過的歷史悲劇，忽略了該地之所以為該地就是因為曾經有過的悲劇。透過另一個國家的分裂歷史，〈圍牆〉隱喻著臺灣對自身歷史、現況、與未來的多重歧異想像。

攝影拼貼系列〈戰地是一廂情願，而郵票是一張紙〉（2020 - 2022）將展出九件作品。這些作品集合了藝術家前往金門探訪軍事遺址與紀念場館時所拍攝的照片，包括金門迎賓館、退役戰車、歌手鄧麗君勞軍畫面、以及其他戰地遺址。之後，藝術家將具有國家性的早期郵票實物拼貼於照片之上，以不同的符號、字詞、或無意義的圖形來回應或遮擋這些「觀光」照片中的戰爭景物。金門的戰地早已成為了一種不切實際的憧憬，它不斷的被循環利用在不同的層面上，作為一種操作政治與情感的浪漫工具;印有政治宣傳的郵票也類似如此，它們仍然意圖傳遞著某種幾近被淘汰卻又不被消滅的信息。當兩者結合時，它們既相互建立著脈絡，卻也相互扼殺彼此的脈絡──光榮而沈重的戰地成為了幻影，偉大的思想只不過一張薄小的紙片，最後變得什麼也不是。

LAN Chung-Hsuan
The Wall 圍牆, 2022
Photographs and graffiti installation
300 x 600 x 100 cm

LAN Chung-Hsuan
A Battlefield is a Whisful Thingking, yet a Stamp is a piece of Paper 戰地是一廂情願，而郵票是一張紙, 2020 - 2022
Archival inkjet print, vintage stamps
70 x 100 cm / 86 x 48 cm / 42 x 60 cm / 42 x 30 cm