Howard Chen makes the banal beautiful in a solo show using only thumbtacks
"Aura Beyond" is a deceptively beautiful show that some may easily miss.
Those who are likely to pass this single-installation exhibit by are the so-called "phase-one" audience, a term used by the show's featured artist Howard Chen (陳浚豪) to define those who who walk into the exhibit space, stay for three minutes to gawk at the 300,000 thumbtacks lying on the floor and walk out again. "Phase-two" viewers are those who take the time to walk to the center of the 12m by 18m rectangular frame outlined by the thumbtacks on the floor. From various observation points, viewers will behold a shining silver sea that seems to set the exhibition space shimmering.
Chen uses light to bring beauty out of mundane, daily objects such as the thumbtack in this single-piece show. Arranged by Chen and a team of 15 people over more than 70 hours, the thumbtacks are all tilted in one direction away from the entrance and in the direction of the ceiling lights. Light is then reflected off the thumbtacks, creating a vision of moving silver waves.
The piece is intended to convey a feeling of fluctuating and unstable time and space by creating waves of light that undulate depending on one's physical position in relation to the work.
Most people want to see images, or paintings, Chen says. If people cannot put what they are looking at into the perspectives of time and space, then they walk away, without having taken the time to properly ingest the work in its entirety. Chen says Aura Beyond requires the viewer to wander, take time and thoroughly appreciate the variations of light from different angles.
Chen's installation takes much of its inspiration from 1950s French Neo-Realists, who relied on everyday objects, often discarded ones, in making art. Through a massive assemblage of thumbtacks, Chen's work elevates this thoroughly ordinary item to a piece of art. Chen also explores the concept of multiplicity advocated by French master Arman, who believed that by simply gathering large numbers of similar objects, works of beauty can be created.
Chen's work is also a further take on the original vs reproduction valuation issue. Mass production is usually viewed as lowering the value of an object, Chen says, but in this case, a clever manipulation of the simple thumbtack succeeds in both bringing out the object's beauty and, by placing it in a museum, it achieves the status of art and provides a commentary on the definition of art itself.
Some viewers have suggested the thumbtacks face the entrance so that the visual effect of the work is immediately visible upon entering. Chen dismisses the possibility, insisting that the audience spend the extra time to circle the piece to feel its full impact. Laying out the work apparently was a painstaking task, and a close look will reveal a penciled grid used in the laying of the thumbtacks.
Chen says his interest in returning to the simple objects of daily life is a reaction to modern-day intrusive media and information overload, which spur delusion, uncertainty and controversy.
"I want to go back to things that are closely linked to our lives, and also to a life of simplicity," says Chen.
Art Notes
What: Aura Beyond: Solo Exhibition by Howard Chen (潛在氛 - 陳浚豪個展)
Where: B2, Gallery F, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 181 Chungshan N. Rd., Sec. 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路3段181號)
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