Ancient soul of the avant-garde
In 2009, Wu devised a concept for yet another series, entitled Still Life, drawing on the inner world of traditional ink paintings—it came to him while he was on a plane returning from a visit to his then-girlfriend in Japan.
Using simple single-channel video, he combined the compositional forms of Chinese inkwash paintings with the “Zen state of mind” said to be a unique part of Japanese culture, and then added the bright clarity of new media. It was like producing a series of romantic little chansons celebrating the exotic taste of a cross-cultural love affair.
Still Life is divided into four works: 01—Pine, 02—Orchid, 03—Bonsai, and 04—Bamboo. Wu placed these small plants in a vat of liquid formed by mixing flour into milk. The water was then drained out through a pipe. The result is the gradual emergence, through what appears to be a dissipating fog, of glossy and supple plants. Then, by running the video in reverse, the plants are again enshrouded in a mist. In this work Wu captures the idea of “space deliberately left undone,” a vital if difficult-to-define conception integral to classical Chinese painting. He also brings the new media of video into new territory—the calming and genteel ambience of the classical Chinese landscape. This series can be seen as a major landmark, a work which, of all those in his career, seems to express most fully his “avant-garde ancient soul.”
For Still Life 04—Bamboo, Wu first painted the wood with black ink. As the liquid drains from the tank, the swirling causes the ink to seep out of the wood, creating a dynamic sense of gray smoke, and the lines that form in the swirling mixture a trance-like ambience.
When the work is exhibited, a traditional scroll painting hangs on the wall, while the projector shows a swirling landscape in motion—it takes the genre known as “dynamic painting” to a level of movement that truly befits the name!
“My original idea was that the water should not move, and I was going to use a robot arm to move the plants up and down through the water to create the vision of their gradual disappearance and emergence. But I found that no matter how many times I experimented, it was impossible to keep the motion of the machine steady. So I simply switched over to the approach of letting the water slowly drain from the tank. Afterwards, I rather flattered myself that coming up with this new idea was genius!” says Wu, not making much effort to conceal his self-satisfaction.
When asked what he plans to do now that he has reached 30 and achieved a certain status in his profession, Wu gets a look on his face that is at once worldly and ambitious: “I’m going to be ‘living large’! Starting at the end of this year I have three major solo exhibitions opening in Taiwan and overseas!”
He also plans to expand the Still Life series into large-scale works, which will incorporate the concept of majestic large-scale landscapes into video art. He has been collecting beautiful potted plants for this project since the end of 2011, and he expects it to be the culminating stage of his “blended” artistic concept.
“I feel very conflicted. Art for me is very much an ever-changing, unstable thing that is always churning and resists clarity. I know very well that my classical academic training has been the most important ingredient in making me who I am today, but also feel that this very ingredient is a kind of obstacle. While it is fine to draw on tradition, you have to remake it and even oppose it, but to me that’s as difficult as pitting my creativity against my own self!” What he can say for sure is that he will continue to explore more possibilities in the future, and produce even more mature works.
Wu will have three large-scale solo exhibitions in Taiwan and overseas at the end of this year; expectations are high.
Wu Chin-tsung is the poster child for Taiwanese artists in the thirtysomething generation; by age 25 he had, among other honors, been nominated for the most lucrative arts prize offered in the entire world.
Wu is adept at discovering new aesthetic possibilities in quite simple mechanical principles. In the installation piece Crystal City, a light mounted on a small mechanical car moves back and forth through a “city” whose buildings are made of transparent plastic, casting onto the wall images of a crystalline metropolis that is both virtual and real.
The Wire series includes four separate works covering 10 years of Wu’s creative career. Playing with the focus of slide projectors, he turns cold steel (wire mesh) into “landscapes” with the sublimity and poetry of classical ink paintings. Even the projectors possess a certain mechanical aesthetic.
Wu is adept at discovering new aesthetic possibilities in quite simple mechanical principles. In the installation piece Crystal City, a light mounted on a small mechanical car moves back and forth through a “city” whose buildings are made of transparent plastic, casting onto the wall images of a crystalline metropolis that is both virtual and real.
For one piece in the video series Still Life, bamboo covered in black ink is slowly revealed as white liquid drains from a tank. The swirling liquid washes some of the ink off the bamboo, creating the effect of an enchanting and mysterious gray fog.
Wu is adept at discovering new aesthetic possibilities in quite simple mechanical principles. In the installation piece Crystal City, a light mounted on a small mechanical car moves back and forth through a “city” whose buildings are made of transparent plastic, casting onto the wall images of a crystalline metropolis that is both virtual and real.