Perhaps during this heavy typhoon season, it may not be so thrilling to watch a video of things floating rapidly downstream as it may remind us of utter destruction and lives being washed away.
However, for artist Wang Ya-hui (
Wang had made a splash with her video installation The Crack in the last Taipei Biennial 2002. That piece was a lot about what could and couldn't be seen, as a crack in the white wall would fleetingly emerge to offer a glimpse of landscape, but the white wall itself was also a video projected onto a white wall. Wang often uses this premise of the real and the appearance of the real in her work (like those old TV commercials: Is it live or is it Memorex?)
Since 2000, most of Wang's work is a combination of filmed footage and computer animation, reality vs. virtual reality. For this exhibition, upon entering, one sees a large wall projection of an upside down city. Glimpses of Taipei City mingle with the interior of a small model house with dark wooden floors and several doors. Suddenly people and dogs appear on a beach. The model house shows up again and now there are kids skating in a roller rink. The topsy-turvy imagery continually scrolls down like a computer screen. Even though the images are real our way of looking at them is contrived, much like surfing the Internet.
Upstairs is a separate viewing area for a digital video projection of a river flowing. However the imagery is computer animation, so it has the feel of a computer game. In the distance, small things appear in the river and start to rapidly flow towards the viewer. As the objects get nearer, the soundtrack changes to reflect the objects. When a carousal horse drifts past, the tinkling sound of a music box can be heard.
Partly, this piece feels like an academic exercise, such as: try to render various colored glass bottles as realistically as possible. In other words, this piece seems like a school project done for a 3D computer animation class. And that's unfortunate, as things floating down a stream can be very Jungian and help us remember those things in our collective unconsciousness.
The office area contains three framed pictures from the video animation. However, the idea of floating is best conveyed through movement. This is not a major show or one that is overly ambitious; yet it is interesting to see where this work will lead to in the future. Wang seems torn between capturing the real world and creating an artificial animated world. Will one win out in the end?
Exhibition notes:
What: Wang Ya-hui Solo Exhibition `The Drifting Place'
Where: It Park, 41 I-Tong St, 2/3fl Taipei, Taiwan (台北市伊通街41號2-3摟), telephone (02) 2507 7243
When: Until Oct. 2 , Tuesday to Saturday, 1pm to 10pm
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