Composite media
“I spent too long working on form, and was already more than 50 years old when I switched my focus to working in composite media,” says Kuo.
Kuo found nothing to call his own while feeling his way through basic forms, so he decided to try experimenting with composite materials instead. He tried combining stone with brass, bronze and stainless steel, but none of his experiments succeeded. “I considered a piece a failure if I was unable to make the materials appear distinctively different, to make them contrast and set off one another,” explains Kuo.
He achieved success with his combination of granite and stainless steel in 1993’s New Vision, a piece that combines concrete and abstract elements to create contrasts between brightness and shadow. It consists of a base comprising two rough granite columns of different heights, with an eye carved into the taller column, and twisting lines of stainless steel mounted atop the shorter. While some people interpret these lines as hair, Kuo says they represent a brain in the act of thinking. He explains further that the eye, carved with a few simple lines, represents the idea of “looking ahead.” Kuo is relatively satisfied with how it turned out.
In 1994, Kuo showed Gate of Saha at Japan’s third Association of Asian Contemporary Sculptors domestic exhibition. As the newspaper Asahi Shimbun described the piece: “Its two ‘eyes’ are carved into red granite. Gold wings on the left and right reflect these eyes from a variety of angles, causing the sculpture’s look to change with the movement of the sun, as if in different dimensions.” It was a truly pioneering work, with mirror-like stainless-steel surfaces taking on surprising new aspects when seen from different angles.
Kuo’s career underwent a turning point at the age of 50, and he says that it is his work since then that finally made his international reputation.
By this time, Kuo had already developed a unique vocabulary, and at 50 he began to free himself from the limitations of his materials. He moved freely between the concrete and the abstract; contrasted fantasy and reality, light and shade; produced harmonious blends from combinations of clashing materials; and successfully expressed his ideas in works created in a variety of materials.
Kuo Chin-chih still sketches out his ideas by hand.