Meditation; the dual exhibition by Tseng Wei-hao & Kuo Chu-Hsien

Meditation is the process when an individual tries to find his or her own soul. It is a way of mind-training that transcends one’s conscience to achieve one’s ultimate goal. Though different religion has its own way of meditation, such as Yoga in Hinduism, Zan meditation in Buddhism and Dao meditation in Daoism, they all seek to transcend one’s own mind. Meditation--The Dual Exhibition by Tseng Wei-Hao＆Kuo Chu-Hsien is based on this notion, and uses only “mediation” as the title to avoid too much religion association as well as to combine the two artists’ concepts. A quote from the co-preface, “We try to relate our personal experiences and ideas to people, from the tiniest whispers to explosive screaming.” Kuo’s works use abstract lines to express personal affection and experience. Those personalized lines go beyond conventional images and focus on the direct communication between the media and the artist herself. Tseng’s works, on the other hand, are famous for their shapeless visualized energy. Both of the two artists think outside the box and express their affection in an extreme personalized way.

Kuo thinks that her own works “come from the intense defect in life, and from the adversity resulting from memory. I hope to obtain an attentive state of oblivion through creating.” That is to say, in the process of creating, she attempts to get rid of the socialization etched upon her memory, and with her works to present every detail during this process. The “intense defect in life” comes right from the limitation from the society, and therefore becomes some adversity she cannot overcome. Hence, “creating” serves as her attempt to break the yoke of socialization. This notion is well-reflected in her works, where simple lines and forms record every moment of her creating, as oppose to the complexity of social values.

Tseng’s works feature the shapeless visualized energy. His works present the invisible energy existing around us. In other words, the process of visualization serves as a metaphor of Tseng’s state of mind. He thinks that his works “come from my primitive desire to communicate. When viewers touch my works, communication begins.” Like the “sound” ever existing in his works, communication will not be possible unless viewers take the initiative to interact with them. Only through respective interaction can the “sound” in his works come out of the frame. As a result, without active interaction between the viewers and those works, they would be merely silent objects and, from Tseng’s point of view, remain unfinished. The “communication” in his works is not based on language, but the most primitive element of “sound” instead.

Curriculum Vitae Tseng Wei-Hao EDUCATION Sept 1995 - June 1999 Graduate Department of Sculpture, National Taiwan College of the Arts B.F.A Sept 1999 - June 2004 Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts , Tainan National College of the Arts M.F.A EXHIBITIONS Solo Exhibition 2000 「Strong Attraction」 , Tainan Painting Company Gallery,Taiwan 2006 「Connect by Traces of Electricity」 , Taipei Museum of Contemporary Art ,Taiwan 2007 「FUN TOUCH」 Tainan National University of The Arts, South Gallery,Taiwan 「Sound Raiser」 National Hsinchu University of Education, NHCTC Artist Space,Taiwan 2008 「Imitative Existence」Taiwan New Arts Union,Tainan 「Resonance」Galerie Grand Siecle,Taipei, Taiwan 「Transience」Kalos Gallery,Taipei, Taiwan 「Sound Addiction」,Taichung Municipal Tun District Art Center,Taichung, Taiwan Group Exhibition 1999 「Virtual Ether」, Banchiau Eslite bookstore , Taipei,Taiwan 2000 「Reset」 , Tai-Dong Culture Center,Taiwan 「Painting Company Show」 , Tainan Painting Company Gallery,Taiwan 「Things Have Come to such a Pass」 , Tainan National College of The Arts,Taiwan 2001 「Still」, Tainan National College of The Arts,Taiwan 「Paradisal New Century」Jwu-Wei Studio, Taipei,Taiwan 「Paradisal, hardware store」, Kaohsiung Mountain Art Museum,Taiwan 「Taiwan Contemporary Sculpture」, Taipei Huashan Arts District ,Taiwan 2002 「Aurora Australis-Modern Installations and New Art」, Tainan ShinKong Mitsukoshi Department Store,Taiwan 「CO2 Taiwan Avant-Garde Documenta 」, Taipei ,Taiwan 2003 「Family」, Tainan Painting Company Gallery 2004 「CO4 Taiwan Avant-Garde Documenta 」n, Main Trend Gallery, Taipei ,Taiwa 2005 「Con-temporary Citizens」,Lan-Zhou Police Station, Taipei,Taiwan 「Metal‧Life‧Agitate—Metal Sculpture Them Exhibition」, Art Site of Chiayi Railway Warehouse, Chiayi,Taiwan 「Exhibition of Future Sculpture-The Nonlinear Sculpture City」,Hualien,Taiwan 2006 「Humanfusion」，GASWORKS，London,UK 「Turning The Theater-Sensational Mobilization」,National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung,Taiwan 「2006The Sun Festival」, Shihsanhang Museum of Archaeology,Taipei,Taiwan 「1st digital Art Festival Taipei 2006-Aura Spurt Remoteness Nearby」, Jhongjheng District, Taipei,Taiwan 「CO6 Taiwan Avant-Garde Documenta 」,Taiwan Art. Design And Architecture Center, Taichung,Taiwan 2007 「From Here to There」, VT Artsalon , Taipei ,Taiwan 「2007 Very Fun Park II」, Eslite Bookstore , Taipei,Taiwan 「Fun」, Waterland Kwanyin #112 (performance), Beijing 2008 「08’CONTEMPORARY ART Lives HERE 」Charlotte,U.S.A. 「Harinony in Diversity~Compatibility of 19 Cross-Strait Art Spirits」ASIA ART CENTER, Taipei 「Sensory Topology:Bodily Perception of Taiwan Contemporary Art」Gwangju Museum of art,Korea 「New Faces-all Together in Digital Art」Digital Art Ceniep. Taipei,Taiwan 2009 「Observatori 2009, X International Festival of Artistic Investigation」, Valencia,Spain 「SCOPE MiamiInternational Contemporary Art ~Beyond the Mirage Taiwan New Media Art」,Miami, U.S.A. 2010 「Beyond the Mirage Taiwan New Media Art」,Hong-Gah Museum,Taipei,Taiwan 「Post adolescence」, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung,Taiwan 「Time Unfrozen - From Liu Kuo-Sung to New Media Art」, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei 「Chinese-characte Installation Exhibition」7th Chinese-character-Festival, National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall,Taipei,Taiwan 2011 「Art Renaissance in Tamsui」,Tamsui Art Gallery,Taipei,Taiwan 2012 「Transjourney - 2012 Future Media Festival」, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts,Taipei,Taiwan 「Find Green Light」New Media Art,Park Lane by Splendor.Taichung,Taiwan 「Mobile Forest」New Media Art, Digital Art Centre, Taipe, Taiwan 「Tremble .Movement .Perception」Yhe New Horizon of Taiwan New Media Art, K11 Art Space ,Hong Kong 「Sculpting Visual Gesture of Sound」, Art Center of Providence University, Taichung, Taiwan 「Transcendence of Illusion」, a mobile art museum, Taipe, Taiwan 2013 「2013 The Delight of Chinese Character Festival -The Evolution of Characters」,The pier-2 Center,Kaohsiung,Taiwan 「Format Daily」,Liang Gallery ,Taipei ,Taiwan 「RPM: Sound Art China」, Westbund Biennial , Shanghai,China 「Meditation-The Dual Exhibition by Tseng Wei-Hao & Kuo Chu-Hsien」,Absolute Art Space , Tainan, Taiwan PRIZES 2003 Taipei Arts Award , Honorable Mention Taipei Fine Arts Museum 2004 National Cultural and Arts Foundation 2004-2 Fellowship National Cultural and Arts Foundation 2004 Young painting works classical-collection ,Works Reservation Council for Cultural Affairs ,Taiwan 2005 Taipei Arts Award , Grand prize Taipei Fine Arts Museum 2006 1st digital Art Award Taipei City Department of Cultural Affairs 2007 Young painting works classical-collection ,Works Reservation Council for Cultural Affairs ,Taiwan 2007 S-AN Art Creativity Sponsored Reward S-AN Cultural Foundation 2009 Young painting works classical-collection ,Works Reservation Council for Cultural Affairs ,Taiwan RESIDENCY Gasworks Residency, London, Britain 2006.1-2006.4 CAMAC Residency, Paris, France 2006.8-2006.10 McColl Center Residency, North Carolina, U.S.A 2008.1-2008.3 Point B Residency, New York, U.S.A. 2008.4-2008.6