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From the Gut to the Gods
1 - 29 May, 2026 Wei Ming Ming, Taipei, Taiwan John Chuang x transpossu x Jimmy Lu, Dou-dou Hsueh, Liya Lee, Kai-Ti Shan, Wang Cheng Sean, Sharol Xiao, Ada Kai-Ting Yang, Yang Yukuang, Zhuu Zoun |
從胃袋到神祇
1 - 29 May, 2026 未命名，台北，台灣 莊約翰 × 狸貓換 × 呂宗翰、薛嘟嘟、李俐亞、單凱悌、汪正翔、小小、楊凱婷、楊宇光、周竣 |
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Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote in 1946: “Man first exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world — and defines himself afterwards.”
Contemporary art today is often saturated with excessive interpretation, grand social narratives, and the cold language of scientific data, to the point where exhibitions can begin to resemble classrooms. Yet the primal force of art has always originated from the direct witnessing of human existence itself. This exhibition attempts to strip away the shell of knowledge and explanation. Rather than constructing arguments or dialogues, it treats the exhibition space as an embodied practice — returning our attention to the subtle, fragile, and at times awkward conditions of being that emerge when individuals confront survival and reality. The Awkwardness and Desire of Survival The exhibition opens with a dialectic of “eating and being eaten.” In a new work by Wang Cheng Sean, the artist appears as an “opening cockroach,” enacting a cold ritual of survival at the margins of the art system, reducing the social identity of the artist to the most primitive instinct of consumption. Meanwhile, Kai-Ti Shan transforms her own body into a commodity through staged photography — placed upon the shelves of consumer society, waiting to be viewed, purchased, and devoured. Both works attempt to affirm existence through primal gestures within rigid social mechanisms. Annotations of the Flesh and Deviations of Dream Moving into a more intimate space, the body detaches itself from the social field and turns inward. Sharol Xiao’s blood-stained self-portraits function as immediate notes on bodily deterioration. The traces of blood and symbols no longer operate as medical documentation, but as emotional annotations left behind through the erosion between soul and flesh. Liya Lee guides us into another form of reality — the realm of dreams. Within the interplay of dim light and darkness, perceptions of life, death, and time become distorted, like the delirious gaze of sleepless nights where consciousness flickers endlessly between disappearance and coexistence. The exchange between body and spirit is further embodied through Ada Kai-Ting Yang’s interwoven scents and shifting light within the space. She defines purification as a “choice” between digestion and sublimation, allowing viewers to sense the threshold between retention and disappearance through acts of breathing and swallowing. Returning from Illusion and Landing in Reality The exhibition trajectory shifts through Yang Yukuang’s interactive work, which invites viewers to leave fingerprints upon the wall — a gesture that pulls us back from the weightlessness of the digital world into the burdened reality of physical existence. Dou-dou Hsueh’s Polaroids resemble fragments of the psyche, producing unexpected collisions and rebounds between objects and memory. Rather than offering fixed narratives, the works return the authority of interpretation to the viewer. It is a transitional process through which we gradually “land” from a state of drifting consciousness. Helplessness and Agency within Reality Finally, the exhibition settles into a dual response on the fifth floor. Facing the helplessness of a disappearing living environment, Zhuu Zoun treats plants as markers of memory, searching for grounded points of belonging amid ruins and demolition. In contrast, John Chuang constructs an absurd “Mazu Resurrection Project,” establishing an illusory yet affirmative connection to belief amidst the scarcity of reality. In the end, the exhibition sketches a complete cycle of human behavior: we possess both stomachs and dreams; we confront decay, yet still long to create miracles. |
「人，首先存在，碰見自己，從世界中湧現出來，然後才定義自己。」
—— 尚－保羅・沙特 (Jean-Paul Sartre)，1946 當代藝術的現場，往往充斥著過度的解釋、宏大的社會命題與冷冽的科普數據，使藝術展場有時更像是一間教室。然而，藝術最原初的動能，始終源於對「人」本身存在的現場見證。本展覽試圖剝除知識性的外殼，不進行說理或對話，而是將展場視為一場具身的實踐；將視角拉回至個體在面對生存與現實時，那些最幽微、脆弱甚至帶點尷尬的生命現狀。 生存的尷尬與渴望 展覽由「吃與被吃」的辯證拉開序幕。汪正翔 新作以「開幕蟑螂」的身份，在藝文體制邊緣實踐一種關於生存的冷調儀式，將藝術家的社會身份退化至最原始的攝食本能。而 單凱悌 的擺拍作品則將自身身體化作商品，在消費社會的貨架上等待被觀看、被購買、被「吞噬」。這兩者皆是在僵化的機制中，試圖透過最原始的動作，確認自己的存在。 肉體的註解與夢境的偏差 進入私密空間後，身體從社會場域抽離，轉而向內探索。小小 的染血自拍照，是對於肉體損耗的即時速記，那些血跡與符號不再是醫學式的病理記錄，而是靈魂與肉體磨損時留下的感性註解。李俐亞 則引領我們進入另一種現實——夢境。在微光與黑暗的交織中，那些關於生死與時間的感知產生了偏斜，如同徹夜難眠時的恍惚視線，意識在消逝與共存之間反覆橫跳。 身體與精神的交換，也在 楊凱婷 穿插於空間的氣味與光影中得到體現。她將淨化定義為消化與昇華間的「選擇」，透過呼吸與吞嚥的感知，讓觀者在留存與消失之間。 從幻境返還與現實的降落 展覽的動線在 楊宇光 的互動作品品中迎來轉折。他邀請觀眾在牆面按下指紋，從輕盈的網路世界回到必須負重的現實；薛嘟嘟 的拍立得如同心靈碎片，在物件與記憶之間產生無預警的碰撞與反彈，不提供既定敘事，而是將解讀的權力歸還給觀者。這是一個緩衝的過程，讓我們從恍惚的意識中逐漸「降落」。 現實中的無奈與積極 最終，展覽停留在五樓的雙重應對。周竣 面對生活環境拆除的無奈，將植物作為記憶的指標，在斷垣殘壁中尋找踏實的立足點；莊約翰 則以荒誕的「媽祖復活計畫」，在現實的匱乏中建立起虛幻卻積極的信仰連結。 至此，展覽勾勒出一個人類行為的完整循環：我們擁有胃袋，也擁有夢境；我們面對凋零，也想要創造奇蹟。 |