Sunrise - Sunset; A solo exhibition by Hsiao, Sheng Chien

Bases in Kaohsiung, the artist Hsiao Sheng-Chien has been shortlisted in two prestigious art competitions for emerging artists in Taiwan: Taipei Arts Awards and Kaohsiung Awards. Hsiao’s works are often constructed out of industrial components and common gadgets. He is also noted for employing autonomous mechanic movements to compose the whole installation. Those mechanic movements are created by using motors, gear wheels or computer chips. By means of these movements, his works are able to generate special aesthetic experience for viewers. At the first glance, Hsiao’s works reminder us of Kinetic art in terms of the mechanic movements. Nonetheless, there is something more in his works than just motions and optic alterations that characterize Kinetic art.

Kinetic art or kinetic sculpture in general, is an art form using natural power or electricity as the source of movements, or, by the operation of viewers to achieve the activities that fashion certain artistic values. In the discourse of the Euro-American art history, Kinetic art has been in relation to the concept of industrialization and modernism in the twentieth century. The mechanic and sometimes autonomous movements create fascinating images of motion and speed, which has symbolized modernity and progression in that era. Hsiao’s works, however, have developed a different context at aesthetic level. The major difference lays in the emphasis on metaphors of materials and the projection of certain narrative and sentiment.

Hsiao’s “Sunrise, Sunset”, showed in the Absolute Art Space—a newly established gallery for contemporary art in Tainan, reveals not only mechanic movements but also metaphors of materials and certain sentiment. In terms of the techniques, by using a traditional overhead projector, bamboo sieves, a piece of paper, a mouth organ, some motors, gear wheels, an air bag, a container of water in red color and some soybeans, he has created a vivid scene of “sunset at the seaside”. The water on the projector creates orange gleam of the sun, and by slowly hauling the paper to make shades, our impression of the motion of sunset is represented by the projected image. Two sets of motors attached on the bamboo sieves generate the force to move the beans in the sieves. The gentle sound of tumbling and rumbling of the beans then resembles the sound of sea waves. The function of the air bag is to make a blowing force to play a key on the mouth organ, and the sound is similar to a ship whistle. Consequently, by cleverly using mechanic movements and those gadgets, the assemblage of sunset, sea waves and ship whistle have composed a narrative of memories and a sentiment of nostalgia.

In terms of the usage of materials, the objects employed in this work are assigned the metaphors that refer to various aspects of the artist’s life. For instance, the motors and gear wheels indicate the Yancheng District in Kaohsiung City, where was famous for its harbor and shipbuilding industry. Hsiao has for long lived in that area and is used to search all sorts of mechanic materials from that district to make artworks. Hence, these objects become a metaphor of creativity and his memories of living. The overhead projector, air bag, bamboo sieves, paper and beans, though simple and naive, is nonetheless a metaphor of the innocent good old time. Hsiao’s “Sunset, Sunrise” as a whole, aesthetically presents a yearning for the disappearing past rather than the sense of modernity that pursues endless progression.

In addition, the mechanic movements in Hsiao’s work have rendered two aesthetic aspects: on the one hand, the autonomous movements form a sense of indetermination, which draw the meanings beyond its construction. On the other hand, while the work reaches certain autonomy during its movement, the artist could step aside and reflects on a deeper level of his artistic motive. Using “Sunset, Sunrise” as an example, the whole installation (when it is exhibited) would form a cosmos for the machines and gadgets, which are animated by electricity. The hardware of machines and the autonomous movements are therefore transformed into a performance of humanistic emotion rather than merely instrumental rationality. Moreover, the completeness of this work can only be achieved by the final operation, which causes the whole autonomous movement and triggers the transformation; otherwise, the machines and the gadgets are nothing but a pile of objects. Accordingly, the work reveals an aesthetic side of none-object and none-material, which then unfolds a subjective significance of artistic motive.

Finally, Hsiao Sheng-Chien’s effort to construct mechanic autonomous movement is not only an artistic practice of fetishism but also a practice to deliver the childishness in his consciousness, which in a way can be regarded as a yearn for return and the past.