I Saw the Cloud by Hsiu-Ju Cheng

I Saw the Cloud by Hsiu-Ju Cheng

Date｜2021/10/13 (Wed.) -11/21 (Sun.) Opening｜10/16 (Sat.) 15:00 Forum｜10/16 (Sat.) 15:30 Guest｜Chia-Hsuan Yang

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The title of this exhibition, “I Saw the Cloud,” originates from the Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei’s work, “Mount Zhongnan Retreat:”

At middle age I seeked the way, As I age, at the foot of Mount Zhongnan my abode lays. I wander alone for my heart’s content Amid wonders for myself to hold. There I stroll to the end of the brook To sit and watch the clouds ascend. An old man chances to pass the woods, In chat and laughter lies no return.

I especially like the line “To sit and watch the clouds ascend.” The way the poem beholds the movements in stillness, the carefree contentment, and the calmness towards the weight and hardships of life, along with the aloofness, subtlety, and mysticism within the poem all fascinate me. Nowadays, everything seems to be instrumentalized. The sense of life seems to be hollowed out and forgotten. The instrumental rationality is depleting our natural sense of life. The title of this exhibition “I Saw the Cloud” borrowed the line “To sit and watch the clouds ascend” from Wang Wei’s poem. The theme “I Saw the Cloud” has been the recent focus of my works. Alongside the daily and familiar facts, I took an “unhurried” attitude that perceives the world from the sideline, intending to loosen the limitations and immobility in life. At an unhurried pace, there’s room to look, to gaze, and to focus on the small things in life. With an unhurried pace, we are allowed to slip away from the way things have to be and those seemingly natural daily routines, and remind ourselves to take note of our surroundings.

When we look at an image, a combination of continuous frames creates the illusion of time flow. Our vision turns towards the virtual, leaving time behind. Before the image that is so close to behold, and yet impossible to hold, how can we feel “present” with a physical absence? When malfunction or bad reception impact our internet connection and social media experience, the media immersion is interrupted with a gap cutting the signals from reaching our end. With the sudden pause, the mind that was present in the virtual world is forced to return to the external reality.

The present and the absent share the same contours. For me, blank-leaving is more than leaving blank spaces, but an interpretation of what is “to be” with a spatial awareness. The past partakes in the present in a form of absence. Time, space, and physical matters are both the media and the subjects that interpenetrate to form a future that extends the existing space into the dimension of time.

【About Hsiu-Ju Cheng】

1976 Born in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 2018- Adjunct Assisting Professor, Graduate Institute of Applied Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts, Taiwan

【SOLO EXHIBITIONS】 2021 "I Saw the Cloud", Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan 2017 "Transfiguration of Things", Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan 2016 "Drawing of Time", @blackblank215, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2015 "There is a going in my staying and there is a staying in my going", Howl Space, Tainan, Taiwan

【GROUP EXHIBITIONS】 2020 "SCANNING 1.0 Qualititative Art", Kaohsiung Cultural Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2018 "Asia Network beyond Design", Museum Fünf Kontinente, Munich, Germany 2017 "ART KAOHSIUNG", City Suites, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2017 "NEXT ART TAINAN", Absolute Space for the Arts, Tainan, Taiwan 2016"HOME SICK", HOUSE ART CONTEMPORARY, Zhongli, Taiwan 2015 "In the Time of the Academy", NTUA 9 Singles Arts Practice Space, Banqiao, Taiwan