Hyper Reality

DURATION: 2006-03-25 ~ 2006-06-11
OPENING: 2006-03-25
VENUE: Taipei Fin Arts Museum

The contemporary images from the Museum collection assembled in this exhibition span the realms of photography and fine arts. It presents the work of photographers who, employing the approaches of surreal and conceptual art common since the 1970s, no longer restricted themselves to expressing a certain existential reality, and instead set out to forge another kind of reality through which to give expression to personal feelings. Taiwan during the 1980s – particularly following the lifting of martial law (on 15 July 1987) – saw numerous photographers returning from studies abroad, modernist discourse, dissemination of translated works on photography theory, the influx of prevalent trends in the global art community, and rapid advances in digital computerized technology. These developments offered photographers new aspects to consider for developing new styles distinct from salon photography and photojournalism. Invested with an experimental spirit and creative drive and no longer satisfied with conventional arts training, the fine arts realm began experimenting with digital images. The emergence of such computer software applications as Illustrator and Photoshop in the 1990s gave artists new weapons for their arsenal, allowing them to run simulations like a film director – selecting, producing, or recreating assorted realities for viewers to interpret and let their imaginations run free. With this, imagery transcended previous boundaries, shaking up the expression, ways of viewing, and aesthetic standards of photography, not only forging new paths, but also allowing digital computer graphics to bring photography and contemporary art together and moving them beyond outer form to decoding of deeper and broader cultural symbolism.