Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

David's Paradise is a highly accomplished project, whose sophisticated visual language does not just pursue an aesthetic of technology, but rather emphasizes the service of technological methods to the needs of the concepts of art. Its simple and minimalistic style provides a direct psychological impact on the audience, and the delicate joining of sound and digital video expresses the intrinsic connection between life and space. The cinematic presentation of the video frees the work from purely visual limitations and provides a psychological projection of the experience of life. This project communicates the experience of loss and the conditions of human experience through technological means, using abstract and non-narrative video to explore the human psychological experience. The use of the sense of space and time (the juxtaposition of the exterior and interior) reflects upon life and death, the transience of the human body, and spirituality. Within the work's complex visual language, metaphors of ordinary life suggest both a familiarity of space and objects and, at the same time, a profound uncertainty. The 'virtuality' of the digital imagery and the looping structure of the video, as well as the relationship between reality and hyper-reality, comment on the transitory nature of human life, evoking the perfection of paradise and a reflection on the essence of human existence, which is both a dream and impossible human construction.

Final Selection Jury: Christiane PAUL, Du HUANG, Tai-Song CHEN 

Jury’s Comments for the Visual Arts Award

A dazzling work! Through narrative twists, the subtle arrangement of audio and video equipment and the delicate installation of the space, Wang Jun-jieh’s “Project David III: David’s Paradise” marks an important moment in Taiwanese video art. Its import is not only based on the work’s aesthetic qualities, but instead supported by circumspect life realizations. The work’s dynamism doesn’t fall into the trap of any easy theory of form and content, but is expressed in the very materiality of the equipment composing the work. The digital language employed is not about technical wonder and wizardry, instead allowing us to quietly gaze upon those territories comprising life and death and attempt to peer inside the work’s metaphysical examinations. The installation, video and film projection are skillfully merged into a seamless whole. Without a doubt, “Project David III” leaves a lasting impression. Wang has created art at the highest level, a classic that later artists will heed. Committee member: Tai-Song CHEN

Artwork Introduction

Project David III : David's Paradise - A solo exhibition by Wang Jun-Jieh

David Project III: David's Paradise is a large-scale video installation shown at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Sep 27- Nov 16, 2008) and is the third part of a trilogy created in memory of Wang's deceased friend that includes Untitled 200256 (two-screen synchronous installation, 2004) and Condition Project II (three-screen interactive installation, 2005).

David's Paradise consists of a video projected synchronously on five huge screens (390 x 219 cm), with a 12 second delay on each successive screen. Installed in a blue painted room, the screens allude to a folding screen, while the installation itself strays away from the conventional "black box" viewing of video works.

Shot in high-definition digital video, the work included lengthy post-production work to create digital special effects. The non-narrative projection depicts a man, or a specter of a man, walking across a lawn and through various rooms in a home. Certain objects like a chair float effortlessly in space. The film-like quality and slow-moving imagery creates an artificial world that evokes alienation in contemporary urban life, while the combination of real and illusory images conveys the ambiguity and the mystery of the co-existence of body and soul in the lived environment.

The technical tasks created by Wang, along with a team that included digital effects, sound, and 3D animation designers, act as the bridge to turn real-life experience into art, thus allowing viewers to contemplate spiritual meanings in everyday life. Memory, desire, time and space are also some of the themes evoked in the work.

About the Artist

Award-winning media artist Wang Jun-Jieh is a pioneer of video art in Taiwan. A graduate from the HdK Art Academy in Berlin, Wang has exhibited in prestigious shows such as the Venice Biennale, and the Asian Art Triennale. Wang is also accomplished as a curator, exhibition and stage designer. He gained acclaim as Staging Visual Director for the National Symphony Orchestra's Taiwan premiere of Wagner's Ring Cycle. Wang's notable curated and designed exhibitions include "Navigator: Digital Art in the Making" (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, 2004), "Vivienne Westwood" (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2005), and "2006 Taipei Biennial: Dirty Yoga" (Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 2006).