In this project, I collected old family photographs which are given by the curator of the exhibition 'There-has-been' in Fotoaura, Tainan. Using the figures and stories of a family that is not my own, this project challenges the pliability of memory by reducing and reinterpreting displaced photographs through only the impressions of images.

 

 

There has been
2014 / 06 / 21 (Sat) -  2014 / 07 / 27 (Sun) 

Curator   Lai Yi Hsin
Artists
6.21-7.06  Lee Tzu Ling &  Ho Ming Kuei
7.12-7.27  Chu Yin Hua &  Su Yu Hsien

Opening receptions and discussions
06.22 (Sun)14:30 
07.12 (Sat)14:30

 

The concept of this exhibition originated from a life experience and thousands of old family photographs. The process of organizing old images and practicing the ritual of a vegetar-ian diet after relatives pass away in Chinese tradition, like the call to the historical spirit, brought the passed existence yesterday into the present moment of the true life through images as the interface and the in-person experiences. The witness of its existence be-came a new proof. Though it was involved in the past, it proved and deepened the true-ness of the present life and existence.

 

This exhibition began by such life experiences. Four artists were invited, including Chu Yin Hua, Lee Tzu Ling, Ho Ming Kuei, and Su Yu Hsien. The exhibited works were all origi-nated from the personal life experiences of creators. Through the creations, the artists rep-resented, traced back, or reflected the important experiences and profound feelings in their lives. It looked like a temporal journey of reality, exploring, proving, or reflecting how a “there-has-been-ness” was left in the life experiences in another form. During the process, works became a “new proof” responding to the past and interconnecting and getting en-tangled with the present. The theme of this exhibition is named “There Has Been”, which applied Roland Barthes’s theoretical discussion in La Chambre Claire about the true and existing feeling inspired by photographic images. It also implied the literal meaning of the theme “past reality”. Through various forms, these works displayed the impacts and feel-ings inspired by the “there-has-been-ness”—existed events, experiences, or feelings—in the artists' lives. They put forward these feelings and had them connected with the living meanings of the present ego. Besides personal memories, they presented certain surreal imaginations. Between the events and the memories, they filled in the gaps with imagina-tions. Between the society and the culture, they presented personal feelings and inspira-tions. They exquisitely presented their lives and the events which had existed once but had been passed and lacked in attempt to inspire the audience's recollection and imagina-tions of their own life experiences. 

 

text by Nicole Lai YiHsin, Art Square Taiwan