My experience in learning art started with painting, and it progressed into using digital media as my creative sources. My creative career consisted of several turns along the way, from classical painting to street graffiti, and from street graffiti to digital art. In my college years, I decided to turn to street art due to some unsuccessful learning experiences in classical painting. Because I couldn’t manage the basic skills and presentational styles of classical painting, and also couldn’t develop my personal touch for this genre, the experiences from this learning process guided me to another art genre that was different from classical painting. I was drawn to a creative style that was more unrestricted, and this was how I began with street graffiti. An art form that required being physically involved and active had great attraction to me, because of its characteristics of being direct, physical, and visually enticing. For someone that didn’t have a sense of direction creatively, this active participation released many of my creative or daily anxieties. The endorphin released during the highly active labor certainly gave me a piece of mind, and it was spiritual exuberating at the same time. During my time of graffiti, the creative contents reflected the actual states and emotions I had when creating, and it also evolved my personal religious belief, where I’ve transformed myself into the Buddhist sacred figures, Sakyamuni and Guan Yin, in hope to transcend and enter into the state of Nirvana.
After finishing my master’s degree at the Taipei National University of the Arts’ Graduate School of Art and Technology, I attempted in the possibility of combining painting with technological media. The decision to use the scanner came about unexpectedly in an experiment.
Frankly, the scanner was not really a new technological medium. In the beginning, I was approaching it from the perspective of classical painting, where I tried to represent the delicacy of flowers with a technological medium to even trying to capture their realistic textures. At that time, I was quite insistent and even a bit frantic in my pursuit to discover all the possible ways the resolution could be presented. This kind of insistency to chase after the resolution’s potential could be connected to my 0.5 nearsightedness in real life. From the beginning of my myopia till it gradually getting worse, I’ve always disliked wearing eyeglasses. Even till this day, being over a decade, I’ve never worn glasses. Therefore, in my daily life, I am always in a constant state of haziness, and through time, I’ve grown accustomed to this state. To me, having to wear glasses is actually quite uncomfortable, as it causes me to fear what is real in life. This uncomfortable situation and the fear of deciphering what is real have then become one of the focuses of my creative work. I hope that through my own hands to be able to recreate the truth that I believe in, and through the scanner and my own gestures of processing real objects, to me, I could gain in return more realistic feelings and security. Additionally, the pursuit of high realistic resolution might also be a way to make-up for the senses of lost from my school days, where I could never learn how to paint realistically.
Although I’ve been on a constant pursuit to discover the possibilities in resolution presentation, in the beginning, I was not able to find a medium that could portray the delicate textures of flowers, and instinctively, I gave the scanner a try. After the attempt, I discovered that the delicacies, textures, and colors of flowers were all able to be depicted realistically. In the process of scanning, I held a flower in hand and waved it on a flat-bed scanner, and I realized that the process had some similarities to drawing with similar physical motions. I was then drawn to using the scanner as my creative medium, and began experimenting with the various possibilities of the scanner.
My first work done with a scanner is titled, Sweet Dream; this work has the greatest connection with my past experiences in drawing. Sweet Dream originates from portrait painting, and in particular to the classical portraiture of the upper torso. Artists spend a long time observing and drawing and compressing all the information on a piece of canvas, and I’ve transformed this into a non-linear presentational style with multiple points and time frames, where I’ve documented different parts of myself at that particular moment. In order to document the various portions of the body, I had to twist myself into different postures to accommodate the flat-bed scanner. Between the scanner and the images, the scanner had become a medium that awakens the body, because this kind of laborious state could easily revive the body’s experiences and memories from the past. To me, the experiences and memories that I recalled were particularly about the changes of the body’s outer skin. I’ve always remembered that as a kid growing up I felt anxieties and fears as my once smooth skin began to have hairs growing on it, and the pores that were enlarged by the hair growth led to my gradually apparent sexual indications. My body transformed from the sexless form into the masculine being, and the process was frightening to me. I even tried to suppress this change, but it was of no use.
In creating Sweet Dream, the panicking memories from the past about the changes in the body were brought back to me. Through the scanner, I was facing every detail once again, and the anxieties remained because the pores were even more enlarged, and there were more hairs, and more scars.
Flov”er reflects the dependence and helplessness about the constantly passing sentiments in my life, but the work itself is a form of remembrance, to commemorate the past emotions. In creating this piece, I’d ended a relationship and lost a closed family member, and I simply wanted to represent again those beautiful memories through flowers. Although the past was no longer with me, but at that moment, this was a very good self therapy. Now, I am no longer sad, but am able to keep those memories.
Self-Portrait No.2( RED ) is a contemplation on Sweet Dream, and is about the doubts of the body’s details presented by the scanner, and how the mind set is full of denial and irony; also about the distrust in what we see is the so-called truth. I thought about when I am tightly pressed against the scanner, and how regardless of how tightly or closely I get, there must still be many gaps and spaces, and these crevices are only penetrable by light. I tried to use red paint to fill-up those crevices and spaces and to cover-up and dissolve the surface skin that I am fearful of. This way, the space and my flesh will be connected, and light could permeate through. I contemplate about this kind of situation, and how the light of the scanner perhaps could reflect my true self.
Although memories continue to fade, and truth remains fearful; the scanned images still look so refined and so real, but in actuality, through the manipulation of my gestures, the images are no longer real. However, the placing of the body and memories under the scanner light, to me, is a therapeutic ceremony that acts to recall to past memories. My naivety also leads me to think that through the actions of the scanning, memories are able to be recreated, adjusted, and even repaired and patched up the fears in my personal life.
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I was Born in Taoyuan,Taiwan,1980 . I'm currently studying for an MFA in the Graduate school of the Arts and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts. My past works are mainly
paintings and graffiti. Now are sound/video works that shows the delicate quality of handiwork despite employing digital technology as the chief medium.
e-mail:
bogeahuang@yahoo.com.tw
Education
2000 NTCTC,Department of Fine Art and Crafts Education
2004 The Annual Residential Artist for the STOCK 20 in Taichung
2005 TNUA,Graduate School of Art and Technology
Group Exhibitions and Screening
2002
Taiwan Tempora, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung, Taiwan
2003
The Image of NTCTC, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung, Taiwan
2004
Art Kook, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau,Taichung,Taiwan
Thin Air, STOCK 20,Taichung,Taiwan
Migration and Regress, STOCK 20,Taichung.Art Site of Chia-Yi Railway Warehouse,Chiayi,Taiwan
2005
"Drawing"-Selected Exhibition of Sketch, STOCK 20,Taichung,Taiwan
A Theather of Taiwanese Common Culture, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts,Kaohsiung
2005
FREE ART EXHIBITION, Taipei Artist Village,Taipei
WU XING WU XING-Earthly and Distinctive Flowers and Grass, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts,Taipei.Taiwan
2006
SlowTech, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei,Taipei,Taiwan
decode, TADA Center,Taichung. Art Center TNNUA,Tainan,Taiwan
neMaF 2006 6th New Media Festival in Seoul, Seoul,Korea
III INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ELECTRONIC ART 404, Rosario, Argentina
Open-Contemporary X Post document, Huashan Culture Park, Taipei, Taiwan
2007
URBAN NOMAD FILM FEST 2007, Taipei Artist Village, Nanhai Gallery, Capone's and Mei's
Tea Bar ,Taipei,Taiwan FEIGNING MOVEMENT 2, Huashan Culture Park, Taipei,Taiwan
Traversing Fantasy: International New Media Arts Festival 2007, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
URBAN NOMAD Project, Scope Basel, Basel, Swiss
Very Fun Park 2, No.12,Songshou Rd. ,Taipei,Taiwan
The Paradox of Simplicity and Complexity, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts ,Taichung ,Taiwan
Breathing Deeply, Soka Art Center, Taipei , Taiwan
Transformation in perception, MODERN ART GALLERY, Taichung, Taiwan
URBAN NOMAD Project ,Scope Miami, Miami, America
2008
Breathing Deeply, Soka Art Center, Bijing, China
2007
[11th] Japan Media Arts Festival, National Art Center, Japan
Penumbra: Contemporary Art from Taiwan, Anne & Gordon Samstag Museum of Art, Australia
SECOND VISION, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts,Taichung, Taiwan
SELECTIONS FROM PENUMBRA: CONTEMPORARY ART FROM TAIWAN, Centre for
Contemporary Photography, Australia
FEIGNING MOVEMENT 3, Galerie Grand Siecle ,Taipei, Taiwan
NEW VISION, Expol-Sources Art Space, Bijing, China
Collaboration-Anticipating The Art of Future, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
ShContemporary 08-Best of Discovery, Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
SWEETIES: Celebrating 20 Years of IT Park, IT Park, Taipei, Taiwan
2009
Room 19, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan
The Organic Flux, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
Unsealed Files: The 3rd Anniversary of VT Artsalon, VT Artsalon, Taipei, Taiwan
S-HOMO, K’s Art, Tainain
REALITY FANTASY, MODERN ART GALLERY, Taichung, Taiwan
Dream in a Contemporary Secret Garden, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, U.S.A.
SOFT Revolt, VT Artsalon, Taipei, Taiwan
Honor
2004 The Annual Residential Artist for the STOCK 20 in Taichung , Taiwan
2005 〈LUCY and SUNNY Have a Drug〉 collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2006 The 11th Da Dun Fine Arts Exhibition, Digital Art, First Prize .
2007 〈Flov”er〉collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
2008 The Digital Art Awards Taipei 2008-Digital audio-visual, First Prize .
