Null Movement Shih-Chen Chao solo exhibition

Duration｜2017/4/29(Sat.)-6/4(Sun.) Opening Receptioon+Artist Guide｜2017/4/29(Sat.) 15:00 P.M.

【Statement】

“Null,” meaning “zero” in Germany, has the same denotation in English. However, “null” in English may also imply “void” and “zero functionality” as the phrase “null and void” may suggest. Similarly, “movement,” apart from the spatial movement of objects, could also refer to “musical movement.” The duality of meanings are the reasons why “Null Movement” is chosen as the title of this solo exhibition. 11 years are in between this solo exhibition and the last in 2006. In the past 11 years, I was self-consciously putting myself in the status of low power creation. I declined far more exhibitions than I took part in them; partially because I was writing my Doctoral dissertation about “not doing art.” Another half of the reason is more practical: I have to engage in a lot of non-art works to sustain my study and living. However, judging from hindsight and all perspectives, I found this 11 years of elapse and inertia surprisingly rich with positive meanings. In the approaching “doing-no-art” state, the self-awareness of being an artist conversely force me closer to a kind of limit-experience: in the interior of art, I lurked and observed, and in the exterior of art, I had an anonymous identity. The inner-conscious of this exhibition is about this experience. The concept of “radio silence” is the theme of this exhibition. “Radio silence” is the internationally applicable radio communication rule, regulating all users of radio communication device keep 3 minutes of silence, at every 0 and 30 minutes, and 15 and 45 minutes, on respective 2182 KHz and 500 KHz, and listen intently to the silence conveyed, as it could be a life-saving distress signal. Not only does this radio silence regulate legal possessors of the communication devices, but it also becomes a self-disciplined rule that illegal users follow. Because of the extensive practice beyond lawful regulations, it keeps a kind of telecommunication fundamental morality. And what is to be gained by this silent practice? That is, Silence. How can we ask for listening purer than this listening of silence? How can we experience fullness than this none and void? Have we ever searched for the residue of sound than in this silence? This radio silence is not about keeping mute, but to listen, with absolute silence. Despite the fact that “radio silence” runs through this exhibition, the foundation of this exhibition lies on the identity of artworks themselves. In other words, it is also the questioning of the lowest minimalism of being a work. Perhaps, someone would think it as the topic of modernism and, by extension, the questioning of the essential conditions of an artwork. But the real question of art is neither the question of what art is (aesthetics) nor what art does (sociality). Rather, it is the question of coexistence and the treatment of the relation; or, to me, it is the question of how to present that both are the different progress on the same plane. An effective artwork is not about presenting itself purely or socially, because aesthetics and sociality are the two aspects of one thing. Thus, the actual mission of creation is to create the infinite movements of this “two aspects of one thing.” The fret of choosing between aesthetics or sociality is the neglecting of the duality of this infinite movement and the partiality for one over the other. Exactly! The Möbiusband is the metaphor of the aesthetic and social aspects of arts. The practice of creation is to create a Möbiusband of both sociality and aesthetics. And this is how I feel proper to describe the relations between arts and living: Twist, connect, and make movement upon it. If not, what exactly do artists, living in reality and practicing the technique of non-reality, do?

Host｜Absolute Space for the Arts Sponsor｜ National Culture and Arts Foundation Ministry of Culture, Tainan City Government