Emerging Taiwanese artist Liu Chih-hung (劉致宏) presents cityscapes from a rare perspective: the rooftop.
His third solo exhibition, called Neptune (海王星:一段拼湊的蔚藍時光), shows at MOT/Arts (MOT概念館) until July 17 and includes more than 30 new works exploring urban life.
“I titled it ‘Neptune’ because it’s a planet with minimal mass in its core and mostly gas on the outside,” Liu told the Taipei Times earlier this month. “It’s not unlike people’s relationship with the city. Much of it seems illusory and transient with little solidity in the center.”
Photo Courtesy of Mot/Arts
The 30 acrylic paintings are accompanied by 27 preparatory works in black-and-white acrylic on small canvases that are displayed in a side room. These “sketches” show Liu’s initial inspiration and complement the larger works in the main gallery. In one painting, titled A Distant Place 5 (遠方5), an illegally built rooftop apartment — a common sight in Taipei’s older neighborhoods — looms at the bottom of the canvas against an almost cloudless clear sky that should be blue, but is portrayed in gray.
“People look at the mostly gray surface on my canvases and project their feelings of alienation onto them,” the painter said. “But I’ve had good times here and I have a love-hate relationship with Taipei. Even with the most brilliant colors, when you blend them together, they eventually become gray.”
A Taoyuan native, Liu has lived in Taipei for five years since beginning college in 2006. Currently pursuing his master degree at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA, 國立臺北藝術大學), Liu won the Outstanding Art Prize of School of Fine Arts (國立臺北藝術大學美術學院美術創作卓越獎) at TNUA in March and the Taoyuan Creation Award (桃源創作獎) in April, both for his installation piece The Game They Played (那些人玩的大人遊戲). Liu’s previous work includes his Landscape (風景) and Place (地方) series, which depicted dilapidated five-story buildings in northern Taipei’s Kuandu (關渡).
Photo Courtesy of Mot/Arts
“I’m cynical about human relationships in cities,” Liu said. “If I meet someone through an art function, sometimes I can’t tell if we are friends or if we are simply an anemone and a clownfish.”
As someone who grew up in a small town and enjoys open spaces, Liu likes to spend time on building rooftops, unwinding and observing the city landscape. He says they provide an escape from the compressed space and psychological confinement of city living.
“Rooftops are very different from interiors,” he said. “It’s a place you can go to daydream, take photographs or just relax.”
Photo Courtesy of Mot/Arts
Photo Courtesy of Mot/Arts
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