Duration: 2018.11.10 Sat. – 2018.12.09 Sun.
Press Preview: 2018.11.09 Fri. 12:00pm
Opening: 2018.11.10 Sat. 3:00pm
Venue: Liang Gallery 2F
Artist: Jam WU

Liang Gallery presents a solo exhibition, “Songs and Bonfires,” of Taiwanese artist Jam Wu who, by sharing the paper-cut culture, focuses on the history of folk art and experiments with the interpretation of personal characteristics. The exhibition includes four subtopics: Bonfires, Dictionary, We Settled Here, and Walk along the River Ganges – From Ocean to the Head, which summarize Wu’s artistic exploration of the past two years (2017-2018).

The Bonfires series is a creation based on the dialogue between the Austronesian culture. By reading and understanding various myths, legends, and stories, the artist reexamines what is to be found on the border of civilization. There are many classic implications, such as the revelation of fixed time and space, both ancient and futuristic, humane and political. The works in this series reveal the power of awe, which is the core of mythology, and because of it, everything in the world seems to be one and form a parable about rejecting our holy wisdom.

The Dictionary Series began in 2013. In a group of works, Dictionary IV, which is on display in the exhibition, the artist uses the pages from an aged Chinese-English dictionary as his materials and cuts some gold leaf on it to form a large sample of a group of islands. The visual part of it reminds people of the differences of strong and weak in music, a harmony and counterpoint. It is not an artwork made with paper, but the poem of music.

We Settled Here series was sparked by the collaboration with the Hakka songwriter Luo Si-Rong on her music album. Accompanied by poetry, this series encompasses humanistic feelings about the land and integrates multi-ethnic music. As you can stand in the water or on a mountain, you can also swim in the montaged cuts of a city with heavy glass curtains.

Walk along the River Ganges – From Ocean to the Head series originates from the texts of the writer Hsieh Wang-Ling. Jam Wu relies on his imagination to interpret the words written by the author while wandering in India and experiencing all sorts of divine realities. He visualizes the physical body and the Ganges.

Between the wilderness and civilization, Jam Wu’s artworks reveal the power of awe through their breathtaking beauty, which is beyond the beauty itself.

Biography

Jam Wu was born in 1979 on a small island called Taiwan that borders the Pacific Ocean. His hometown, Tainan, is the oldest city in Taiwan, with his childhood memories consisting of subtropical Anping Fishing Harbor, folk religion temple culture, and agricultural landscape.

Wu predominately works creatively with paper, focusing on the interconnected possibilities between traditional everyday life and contemporary facets, as he experiments with interpreting his own personal distinctiveness. On the other hand, he also regularly implements participatory projects, examining questions about life and social experiences.

Wu majored in architecture in college, and has a particular fondness for poetry. A recipient of the Cloud Gate Wanderer Project Fellowship upon his graduation, Wu used the grant to travel to the high plains in Northern China where he explored local folk art. He has since created art in a wide array of genres, including installation, video, performance, and often collaborates in cross-disciplinary performing works.

In 2009, he was invited by Watermill Center, founded by Robert Wilson, to create site-specific art. The same year, he became the first artist selected for Taiwan’s Eslite Bookstore “Young Talent Artist” program and presented his premier solo exhibition in the form of a trilogy. In 2010, he participated in the artist residency program at CITE, Paris and also traveled to the Arctic region and the Swiss countryside to survey European folk paper-cutting art in those areas. He was awarded that same year with the First Prize for the Louis Vuitton Cultural Space Audition, and became the first Taiwanese artist to exhibit at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton. He participated in the cross-disciplinary project, My Dear with Meimage Dance, presented at the National Theater in Taipei. And the work gained 2013 Taishin Arts Award. In 2014, Wu invited to Paris Hermes Petit h, created a leather and silk collection works.

In the performance project, Subsist Worksheet Of An Artist (2012), he offered to give haircuts in exchange for people’s everyday objects, with the intention to explore the statutory definition for the career of being an artist. In On The Way To Hometown About One Urban Youth, which took place in Beijing hutong, or old alleyways, with youths that have migrated to Beijing from elsewhere gathered over a meal to share their thoughts on the ongoing wave of youths returning back home. For the 2013 Looking For Audience, Wu transformed himself into a furniture store clerk to explore issues regarding public participations in exhibitions. In Temporary _A Questionnaire Of Art and Society（2014）,Wu sought temporaries to be placards, like mobile sculptures, proceeded questionnaire conversations in Hsinchu Train Station. PapercutField – Soulangh Project (from 2016), Wu introduces and leads the local ladies getting inspiration from the local environment (Tainan Salt Zone) and doing paper-cutouts.