Traversing and Passing - CHI Kai-Yuan Solo Exhibition

Traversing and Passing - CHI Kai-Yuan Solo Exhibition

Date｜2022/6/8 (Wed.) -2022/7/17 (Sun.)

Opening｜2022/6/11 (Sat.) 15:00

Forum｜2022/6/26 (Sun.) 15:00

Guest｜HUANG Chien-Hung

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| Traversing and Passing |

Once during a field study in Penghu, an eager pastry chef suddenly pulled out his family album to share with me. This was one of the most unexpected moments in my field research on qi-gui culture. Based on my years of field experience, pastry chefs often to do not have energy to spare photographing themselves or the “prosperity turtles” while in process. Considering that this was in the 1980s in Taiwan, although family cameras were already popular, they were seldom used to “document” work content. However, this album from 1986 to 1988 documented their process of making turtles in the pastry shop for three consecutive years during the Lantern Festival. While flipping through these files, it was incredible to see them. Images from a time when I was about 3 years old (being born in 1983), proof of people and things “living” in each and every colorful, documented, and well-preserved photograph.

These photographs present two singular states of existence. On the eve of the Lantern Festival during busy season, family members return to the pastry shop to assist in the making of prosperity turtles, and this moment with the family as factory is also the annual reunion of relatives and friends (Penghunese regard the Lantern Festival with more importance than the Lunar New Year), and that was when family portraits became possible. While the old pastry chef shared these photos with me, specially pointing out himself and other family members from 30 years ago, including those who are still around, and those who have passed away, explaining why it was no longer possible to make the same prosperity turtles now. (After the passing of the second oldest brother who had been in charge of painting and drawing patterns on the turtlebacks, no one was able to replicate the pattern, and so this form of prosperity turtle is equivalent to extinction.)

This melancholic conversation moved me: one image exhibits two passings, people and things that are no longer. I was suddenly struck by how unique it was for the family member to pick up a camera and photograph. He marked nodes in time with images so we could look back 30 years later, with the large, vivid prosperity turtle being a collaboration of the family, a symbol of emotional connection, the shutter carefully pressed to retain figures and events. Although its contents are things that have passed away, in the still image, they seem to await the gaze of the future; not only as archive, but as a relationship that traverses time and space, a set of hyperlinks to expand.

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CHI Kai-Yuan

1983 Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Education 2011 M.A, Department of Art, National Changhua University of Education, Taiwan

Residencies 2018 Gyeonggi Creation Center, Ansan, South Korea 2017 Schaumbad, Graz, Austria 2016 International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, United States 2015 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles, United States 2014 Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan 2013 Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan

Grants 2015 Visual Arts Grant, Asian Cultural Council, New York, United States

Awards 2014 Taipei Arts Awards - First Prize, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan 2014 Made in Taiwan - Young Artist Discovery, Taipei Art Fair, Taipei, Taiwan

Solo Exhibition 2021 “Blue-Grey Highway”, Soulangh Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan 2020 “72 Nautical Miles”, Fotoaura Institute of Photography, Tainan, Taiwan 2017 “Sticky Rice Turtle”, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan 2014 “Free Yourself”, Frees Art Space, Taipei, Taiwan

Group Exhibition 2020 “Sub-zoology : Taiwan Biennial”, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan 2020 “Changwon Sculpture Biennale”, Seongsan Art Hall, Changwon, South Korea