Whispers: Candy Bird Solo Exhibition

15 November – 15 December, 2024

Opening reception: 17 November, 2024 | 3 PM

Location: Liang Gallery 1st Floor

(No.366, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu District, Taipei 11492, Taiwan)

Liang Gallery is honored to present Candy Bird’s solo exhibition “Whispers.” Candy Bird is undoubtedly an artist skilled at crafting stories, and his own life is full of tales. Drawing from his observations of the world and his inner experiences, he weaves together imagination and poetic language, allowing us to journey through his creations and find resonance. His works encompass representations of daily life and the times, with a constant focus on urban civilization. He portrays the outsider who exists in the center of the city but has no sense of belonging, the helplessness of being unable to distance from or get close to anything. These characteristics subtly pervade Candy Bird’s art.

In his continuously evolving artistic journey, Candy Bird often questions: What drives the act of creation? How close is it to the self? It is perhaps in the gap between self-contradiction and introspection that we find the answer to why he paused his graffiti work for many years and shifted toward the use of diverse media, while focusing more on the essence of life and delving into self-conflict. As time and circumstances inevitably move forward, the artist seeks to translate these external and internal entanglements—those difficult to digest and explain—into new visual and healing languages. His works have come to embody the outsider figure, one who seems to have followers, guiding the audience to wander through the dust of urban civilization, whispering beneath the streetlights as they move forward.

The exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part centers on the video work Riverside Fireworks, accompanied by a series of photographic pieces. Riverside Fireworks was commissioned in 2023 by the Mahora Project, an art organization based in Hiroshima. Located near the atomic bomb’s epicenter, Hiroshima’s Motomachi district is one of Japan’s most historically significant and iconic post-war public areas. Once a site of avant-garde architecture, the district has aged over time, yet it still carries the dreams of many new immigrants. Drawing from his personal experiences, Candy Bird creates a narrative of separation and reunion that mirrors Hiroshima’s tumultuous history. The work was realized through filming on-site in Motomachi, sound design, and the participation of local residents.

The second part of the exhibition features a series of works titled “Whispers,” where Candy Bird presents around twenty new pieces. Through text and space, the works weave together an abstract narrative that extends the concept introduced in “Riverside Fireworks.” With a minimalist storyline, the narrative follows a man and a woman trapped by desire, unable to escape. They are stuck in place, unsure of how to break free, unable to discern whether they should distance themselves or draw closer.

About the Artist:

Born in Taipei in 1982, Candy Bird graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Hua-Fan University in 2006. As one of Taiwan’s most representative graffiti artists, his practice now encompasses painting, text, performative storytelling, and moving images. He has been the resident artist at Koganecho Area Management Center in Yokohama, Japan in 2017, and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in 2019. Recent exhibitions include solo exhibitions: “There, There" at Project Fulfill Art Space in Taipei (2023), “Arrived, Us" at A Concept Gallery in Hong Kong (2019); and group exhibitions: “Listening to the Overtones of Fissures" at the National Human Rights Museum in Taitung (2023), and “Dasein – Born to Be Human" at Jut Art Museum in Taipei (2023).