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Family Recipes: Mother's Forest by Ping-Yu PAN


Family Recipes: Mother's Forest by Ping-Yu PAN

Date|2020.12.23 (Wed.)-2021.01.24(Sun.)

Opening|2020.12.26 (Sat.) 3:00 p.m.

Forum|2020.12.26 (Sat.) 3:30 p.m.-17:30 p.m.

人Guest|SHEN, Bo-Cheng


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【Statement】

The artworks by Taiwanese artist Ping-Yu Pan primarily revolve around the relationship between myths and contemporary life. The artist believes that the collective myths created by human beings are in fact the images composed of superimposed individual life stories. The archetype of these collective myths has been demonstrating a formal evolution that proceeds by a series of nuances, which calls for our awareness of the fundamental issues that the humanity faced. Such an evolving form is exactly the structure of the collective myths. Previous discourses on the myths mainly put universal interpretations on their archetype and emphasized the archetype’s reproduction. Pan, in contrast, argues that we can comprehend the meaning of the mythical structure only by capturing the nuances of its dynamics. The mythical structure connotes that the structure of the archetype has transcended the formal confines through its evolution proceeding by a series of nuances, and therefore become a creative, dynamic structure as a whole. The formal evolution requires the creative participation and deduction of life to transcend the limitations of the archetype. Transcending the archetype (or transcending the paradigm) represents a hero’s odyssey. The myths inspired us by showing how to transcend the confines of life, reality, or paradigm, allowing us to be ourselves, that is, to be our own heroes. In other words, the mythical structure refers to finding our own archetypes and transcending them.

Her series of works Family Recipes embody her thoughts about the mythical structure. In one of her experiences as an artist in residence, she brought one of her mother’s recipes with her and started the longest and furthest journey she’d ever had. Exploring the art world in New York with great excitement, she had never expected the recipe in her suitcase to become the strong emotional connection to her home. The Family Recipes series not only talk about nostalgia through food, but also intend to explore the issues about family, history and culture through life experiences and cooking; since family dishes aren’t just delicacies but the embodiment of inheritance, emotions and culture. With family dishes as the clues of life stories, she talks about the different dimensions of a family story and how individual narrations become collective.

Apparently Family Recipes involves the inheritance and innovation of culture and traditions. In this series, she intentionally uses “the Arts and Crafts Movements” as the parallel issue. In an era of post-conceptual art, craftsmanship can revive arts’ or visual arts’ ability to take control of multimedia languages, and provide the mindset of practical aspects for the “concept-media language-artwork” structure. This time in Tainan, Absolute Art Space exhibits four pieces in this series, including the 2020 new pieces Chang, Ling’s Kitchen, Mandarin Duck Cake (2019), Grandma Owl (2011-2020) and The myth of Lunar Eclipse (2016-2019), discussing the female roles in family.







【About Ping-Yu PAN】

Works and lives in Taipei. Ping Yu Pan earned her degree from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts at Tainan National University of the Arts in 1998, and is currently an assistant professor at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). She has received grants from Asian Cultural Council and ROC-US Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, won the 9th Asian Artist Scholarship offered by Vermont Studio Center, and participated in artist-in-residency Program hosted by Headland Center for the Arts, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco/de Young Museum, etc. Pan possesses abundant domestic and foreign experience, and her work which consist chiefly of mixed-media sculpture or installations, explore the relationship between myths and contemporary life. Her recent project Family Recipes, Pan seeks to explore diffident dimensions of a family story with family dishes as the clues because family dishes not only embody but also perpetuate affections and culture, and are therefore more meaningful than delicacies. Furthermore, she attempts to capture the common image of mythical archetypes in different culinary cultures. She has published two catalogues in 2009 and 2013, her work has been exhibited in many places in Taiwan, and among different international cities. Her work has also collected by Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts.

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