Not in this Image

Not in this Image
Date：2020 September 11th – November 22th
Place：Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts（Taipei National University of the Arts）
Artists：Lyota Yagi, Akihiko Taniguchi, Mari Matsubara, Hsu Chun Yi, Randy Yang, Hsieh Yu Cheng
Curators：Jin Qiuyu, Hsu Chun Yi

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Jin Qiuyu, Curator

The contemporary image, be that on the end of production or reception, attaches too much emphasis on content loading and reading. As a result, people spare no effort to load more mediums on one single image. Either the use of technology or the excessive reliance on exhibition space, for instance, turns out to limit the plasticity of image itself. The term “viewing” seems conditioned by production like “filmmaking” or “producing.” Although we have higher freedom of operation toward visuals nowadays, all these are in fact merely perceptual changes pre-manufactured by data computing. That is, people are losing their agency in “viewing” while the relationship between the viewer and viewee appears to be unidirectional.

Hence, while we enhance senses and messages, do we overlook the imminent yet fleeting mental image that dwells only in individual consciousness? For example, prior to the manifestation of image, it requires matters such as machines, mediums, and materials, whereas we always treat them as the very existence of image. Nevertheless, its true manifestation, i.e. the experience gained by viewers and the part rendered along with imagination and contemplation, is in reality hard to be represented. Situated on the other side of the margin, nearly invisible, it is the key to direction association between the image itself and the existence thereof, nonetheless. Yet, the encounter with the image are not to be interpreted via more discourses and knowledge, but to retard perceptions to attain a new one. Such requirement is literally a decrease of viewing’s intensity instead of an increase of more feelings granted.

The Exhibition focuses on the images “outside” of works – that cannot be seen here and now. Then, it reconnects and circulates within viewers, reversing the “invisible” into the foundation that constitutes visuals. Can we remove the content and leave only the surface of image made of matters that emit light, and allow work to co-construct an interface that engages exchanges directly with the imagination and contemplation of viewers through the Exhibition? To name a few from the participating artists, Mari Matsubara’s work, through the verification of the image’s uncertainty, arrives in front of viewers at last, whereas Akihiko Taniguchi overlaps the work with the mental dimension of viewers to reflect the intention thereupon. If a work is a “small image,” the exhibition as a whole is the “big image” comprising all the works. The Exhibition does not write more images and files, nor does it seek supports for narratives and plots. Instead, it endeavors to depict a field of view close to emptiness. These empty images are not suggesting a collective withdrawal, but collectively referring the venue not in here. It stands without while dwells deep within image. The boundary that determines the form of image is in no way pre-defined, but present in the fleeting moment where sight and image encounter.