Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

The exhibition features the mechanical sound installations the artist has been attentively developing since 2006. In addition to the series, sound.of.suitcase, which the artist has been expanding for many years, the exhibition also includes large interactive sound installations. When the box or object senses the audience, it opens up and starts beating, creating intriguing sounds that remind people of the musical variations of classical music boxes. The work enables us to perceive the everyday audio and visual experiences in an industrialized society. Through re-modification, simulation, and assemblage, the production of sound is visualized and creates a miniature performance of spectacle, simultaneously transforming dull machines into elegant and surreal existences. In the exhibition, sound and hearing are not some process experienced in time, but also amusing and spontaneous contact with material and body. Without doubt, the artist has demonstrated the fun of his invention as well as expanded the field of sound art. (Commentator:  WU Mali)

Artwork Introduction

The solo exhibition showcases ten sound installations, including five chest-styled works from the Sound of Suitcase series, three newly developed, large-sale interactive sound installations from the Sound Wall series, and two smaller, independent works, Loop31 and Falling Moment. Among these works, seven of them are new works, whereas, three are old ones from Sound of Suitcase. In the exhibition, Sound Wall shows the circuit of sound-flow in a way that electronic instruments are connected, and affords the viewers a glimpse of the mysterious procedure of sound production. In addition, when making his works, the artist has to employ knowledge of different fields to make artworks with the media he uses. Because the knowledge mainly comes from open resources on the internet, he also recreates his work space in the exhibition in the attempt to reveal the process of his creation to the audience.

About the Artist

Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1982, WANG Chung-Kun graduated from the Department of Fine Arts and the Graduate School of Arts and Technology. WANG is one of the rising stars in media art in Taiwan. He has created various forms of machinery that possess an intriguing purity and peculiar sense of beauty. These machines operate on their own as viewers approach, making sound, switching on and off, exhaling, spinning, or tinkling. Each creation does not simply perform an unchanging action; contrarily, they all demonstrate varying rhythm that is persistent and lifelike.