“Subzoology”, A Reflection For Mankind
- Valerie Lee Tong
- Apr 2, 2021
- 4 min read
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMFA) has always been committed to bringing up and documenting Taiwanese Art, from 1988 when Taiwan was under the Taiwan Provincial Government up till today, where they successfully convened the seventh Taiwan Biennial.
The theme of the Taiwan Biennial has always circled around the nation’s tradition and culture instead of innovation in art. Like Xu Bing says: “…in truth, eastern art is constructed on traditional methods, which gives it richness and charm. The west focuses on innovation, while the east focuses on who does it best…” Taiwanese artists always push the boundary in art yet never left the theme that reflects home, society, Chinese philosophy, and culture.
First launched in 2008, the Taiwan Biennial began with the theme “Home” and later it was followed by three biennials with “Yes, Taiwan” to show a whole idea and development of Taiwan’s contemporary art. During the 5th Taiwan Biennial, curatorial staff at the NTMFA began to collaborate with a guest curator to expand other possibility and a more adept curatorial methodology, it was this time that they ended the “Yes, Taiwan” with a curatorial theme to highlight the unique characteristics of Taiwan’s contemporary. The 6th Taiwan Biennial continued in the practice of a curatorial duo, with an increased focus on curatorial formats based on research, experimentation, and collaboration.
The 2020 Taiwan Biennial invites a guest curator, Taipei-born artist Yao Jui-Chung, who specialized in photography, installation, and painting. He has different themes in his artworks, but they all examine the absurdity of the human condition through the creation of beautiful yet intellectually provocative visual experiences. Yao often explores issues of history and society, especially those related to the political status of Taiwan.With these, he is suitable to be the curator in promoting Taiwan Art. Now, the space of the museum as his canvas, and the artists as his tools and materials, he expresses the theme that is familiar to him.
“Subzoology” is the theme for the 2020 Taiwan Biennial, by examining the Buddhist belief in the path of reincarnation into animals; Yao questioned, “what mankind can do after the coronavirus pandemic brought the entire world to a standstill”. From the angle of fields of science, art and philosophy, 49 new-generation artists have answered with their works divided into eight subthemes: “Sacrifice and Salvation,” “The Sub-history of Wildlife Trade,” “Portrait of Unknown Heroes,” “Laboratory/Operating Room/Specimen Room,” “Festivals/Sandbanks/Green Coverage Ratio,” “Beast Mimic/Torured Beastnoid,” “Habitat/Zoo/National Park”, and “Performance & Live Art/Multimedia-Installation & Performance.”
The whole exhibition was staged in a way where the audience could have an intimidating interaction, creating a dialog between reality and the world created, we take time to reflect and consider the relationship between ourselves and other living creatures. Humans have always been pursuing developmentalism, by doing so has destroyed nature by taking the life and habitats of animals. This reminds me of Buddhism's teaching on the Four Noble Truth, one's mind is undeveloped, therefore unable to catch the true nature of things because of distraction caused by the endless craving for desires, pleasure, and over-dependence on material things, all of which can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering. Today, it is not only us who suffer, but also the living creature around us who suffers too.
We can see related themes about the relationship between human and animal continuously repeated themselves in numbers of artworks that were selected, with various mediums, from traditional sculpture/painting to more experimental performing art and multimedia-installation. At the entrance of the museum, a huge whale, created by Chen Sheng-Wen, using materials such as waste that was collected from oceans and mountains. Through the repetitive works of embroidery and weaving, the texture by the embroidery looks tangled, like the pollution of the ocean, yet the whale stayed peaceful, trying to co-exist together with the world of mankind, which is humanly impossible.
Moving on to the painting section, there are a few Chinese ink-like paintings created by Yen Yu-Ting that reminded me of ancient Buddhist wall paintings, where the images were flat, the use of soft earth colors, and the figures were stylized. The paintings look cheerful, an everyday scene, yet for Yen, it was disturbing. For example in a long scroll painting, you can see children rocking horses in the park, to her the symbol and vision behind it was quite bloody, the horse's stomach was pierced by iron spring, handles that went through the head, and the children rocking on them violently.
There are two Sound Art installations, one by Wu Ping-Sheng that was played in the middle of the walkway for the passer-by, and the other one by Hsiao Sheng Chien in a space on the second floor. Wu created the sound of the birds chirping by using digital manipulation with the voices of people and children.
Hsiao created the sound of the forest by using materials that were created by man, electric wires, pumps, wheels, etc., blinded by the atmosphere that seems to look like a calm peaceful forest; looking closely realizing we have forgotten we are now actually living in a concrete jungle.
“Subzoology” is a way for the artist to explore this theme through Chinese philosophy, history, and culture, digging deeper into the relationship not only between man and animal but also a man with greed. Greed is so powerful that helps mankind to develop, yet the life around and even ours was left forgotten. This exhibition helps us to be cautious and not to take anything for granted, especially after learning our lesson from the recent epidemic. There is a saying by Lao-tzu: “Without desire there is stillness, and the world settles by itself.” The world is round, an endless circle, when we take too much from others, one day the others would too take from us.
【2020 Taiwan Art Biennale-Official Website】
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