Magnetic Writing 2 : Swirling in Light and Shadow - Gazing and Gazed upon

DURATION: 2002-12-28 ~ 2003-01-25
OPENING: 2002-12-28
VENUE: IT PARK

A face with no eyes, staring empty eye sockets; do I really have to look for my secret in those two dark caves? Although your face does not appear in the flames of flashing light and shade which are just light against light, it is like the well-worn sun on a coin, a widely seen but unclear face. Don’t let the developing fluid change the shape of the corners of my mouth; don’t let the mirror recreate my strange appearance… The group exhibition “Magnetic Writing II: Swirling in Light and Shadow--Gazing and Being Gazed Upon” is a follow up to the 1999 exhibition “Magnetic Writing: Marching Ideas/ Works on Paper”. However, the more recent exhibition is related to the use of “stock photography.” Stock photography refers to an action of exchange, the mass production of visual items related to popular consumer culture. These finished photographic images are provided for the appreciation or use of consumers with no restriction on number of times used or target market . Participating artists were invited to focus on this issue as one of the key interfaces for expressing visual images and semiotic practice. Perhaps images can be a visual experience retrieved other than through conceptualization, even a reaffirmation of ideas we already know. Consciousness is itself a form of image experience, a reality in its own right. It is a multi-layered vehicle encompassing the way in which instinct, emotion and action relate to time, a speed of light amplitude and substance the existence of which pre-dates language, not just a fable with a hidden meaning or a story unfolding according to some literature narrative. Whenever we use language to describe this moment or place, both the moment and place no longer exist. To have self-awareness is to have consciousness and although it is difficult to incorporate self-consciousness in any completely enclosed system, consciousness or group sub consciousness still appears in the distinct characteristics of the individual, we still have absolute freedom to interpret ourselves. We gaze at the image and are gazed upon as the poorly enunciated relationship suddenly freeze-frames at the pulsating margin - the wall still brilliant with tired light. Everyone is walking, constantly imprisoned in the mirror of his or her own observations, a finite space of infinity, proud of the honor for which we yearn. Though noisy and confused, proud and empty, it is replete with the meaning and mystery of various existences- like gazing at a watching a kestrel in flight suddenly stop in the desert sky… (Text by Chen Hui-Chiao) Yuan Goang-Ming、Shu Lea Cheang、Chen Chieh-Jen、Tsui Kuang-Yu、Yang Mao-Lin、Wu Mali、Ben Yu Chu Chia-Hua、Lin Hsin-I、Lin Shu-Min、Liu Shih-Fen、Chen Shun-Chu、Lin Hong-John、Tsai Chen-chu Lu Ming-Te、Wang Te-Yu、Wu Tien-Chang、Liu Zhong-Xing、Hung Tung-Lu、Michael Lin、Wang Jun-Jieh Shieh I-Tyng、Yao Jui-Chung、Huang Wen-Hao、Fang Marvin-Minto、Jun T. Lai、Mei Dean-E、Chen Hui-Chiao Tsong Pu、Ku Shih-Yung、Peng Hung-Chih、Fandra Chang