Thou Shalt not Self-pollute — Solo Exhibition by Su Hui-Yu

【Statement】​

"All those porns, pornographic novels, or strange tales that take the public's fascination, they play with my imagination about the world through the concept of shame." by Su Hui-Yu Su Hui-Yu's works revolve around the entanglement of mass media, images and contemporary life. In recent years, he has focused on the self-exploration of media perception, without being bound by the binary opposition between man and TV. Based on his own imagination of the media, he gets to explore as well as translate the public's possible shared media and cultural experiences. This exhibition includes five collections of works: “Sex and Death and the Boy Infant”, “Man Carrying Shame”, “Stranger Carrying Shame”, “Abused Canine”, and “Thou Shalt not Self-pollute (“Dr. Kinsey”)”. With “sex” as the main theme, Su uses pornography, news media, and book of unknown year to explore how the social ideology has molded knowledge as well as imprisoned desire on the levels of illusion, shame, and body. As men and media are heading toward a deadlock socially and culturally, Su aims to provide spectators an insight into the crack between life and imagination with slow dream-like images.

"Thou Shalt not Self-pollute", the exhibition's title, is cited from one chapter of "Dr. Kinsey" (year unknown). The view of self-pollution (masturbation) being unhealthy responds to the traditional society's shame about sex. As for the "thou shalt not", like rumors, its fictional authority or paradox is constructed by the mass media. As a whole, the title conveys people's struggle between their imagination and the knowledge produced by the media. The five works display in this exhibition all manage to create different viewing experiences and physical perceptions of space. Through the act of viewing, spectators are lured into an illusionary space constructed by images and self-consciousness. At the same time, they would also realize the connection between their bodies and the real world. In this media age of "thou shalt not something", it is through images and physical perception for one to reassess the relationship of mass media, contemporary life, and self-construction. (Written: Yi-Hsin Nicole Lai)