Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The media has always been the focus of Su, Hui-Yu's artwork. Past work includes two impressive series “The Fabled Shoots” and “Blood Beauty,” which parodied special effects often seen in movies and television. While the artist's latest project “Stilnox Home Video” continues to revolve around the media, Su pursues entirely new themes and expressive techniques, including linking individual experience with the media, the prevalence of psychosomatic illness and use of therapeutic medicines, and ways of using sound and camera movement to draw viewers into mistaken impressions of a scene. Comparable in image quality to commercial movies, Su's video art employs an enemy camp strategy to generate tension, implement counter measures and highlight his concerns. Committe member: Chin, Ya-Chun

Artwork Introduction

The artwork for the exhibition came about unexpectedly. One night Su took the sleeping pill Stilnox, but instead of immediately jumping into bed, he sat in front of the TV and soon entered a hallucinatory state that was neither asleep nor awake. As he stared at the screen under the pill's effect, he felt as if the space around him shrunk, time sped up and the TV program appeared like a psychedelic reality show.

On Stilnox, Su experienced the moving image of TV in an inspiring way. As a result, he created two video series: “A Day of Horror” and “Stilnox Home Video: The Midnight Hours.” These video works, shot in his home, were about the experience of being under the influence of the pill and how he perceived his reality and TV’s reality. “A Day of Horror” focuses on rebuilding the connection between image and life after the pill's unsettling physiological effects wane.

“Stilnox Home Video” was an unforeseen work in Su's art career path, but still a work of key significance. A pill resulted in a fortuitous and unique means of meeting inspiration. Furthermore, the experience referred to in the work, commonly called hallucinating, is not the type associated with hippies or psychedelia, but rather is closely connected to Su's everyday waking life.

Su was also pleasantly surprised by this turn of events because it allowed him to see that the themes he has been dealing with over the last few years—television, movies and mass media, actually all of his concerns—are exactly the reality and daily context before our very eyes. Stilnox reminded him that his concerns are related to life in general, and not just television and movies; yet he still does not want to overlook the fact that television and movies are closely linked with our lives.

About the Artist

Multi-media artist Su, Hui-Yu was born in 1976 in Taipei, where he currently lives and works. He received his MFA degree from Taipei National University of the Arts. His artwork includes performances, videos and photos, and he also writes poetry.

Since 1998, he has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Taiwan and abroad. Over the past few years, Su's art focuses on themes about reality as seen through the filters of the mass media, and how deeply linked such mediated images have on personal lives. His dynamic website: http://www.suhuiyu.com is titled “The TV Kid” and showcases his art which is heavily influenced by media culture.