Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist 

The exhibition delves into the production processes and history of Taiwan’s grafted pears, allowing the audience to understand the delicate and complex agricultural grafting techniques illustrated by the orchard’s micro-histories while showcasing video art's aesthetic skills and expressiveness. CHEN Liang-Hsuan affectively edits the nuanced changes of light and shadow over time, showcasing the vibrancy of nature and embracing the captivating qualities of video as a medium. The narrative, use of sound, and forms of projection or imaging are intricately woven together. The thoughtful design of interface materials, dimensions, and height variations enables the work to integrate or shift between chapters smoothly. This approach provides diverse expressions and interrelations of the video content, leading to an overflowing sense of poetry. (Commentator: SUN Ping)

Artwork Introduction

Hensan Pear Trees & Hosui Pears is a three-channel video that reimagines the intricate and time-consuming cultivation methods employed by Taiwanese pear farmers. Displayed as a triptych from a single-point perspective, the piece reconstructs elements of the sky, land, sounds, and human activities across three synchronized screens. As a video installation, it reflects the techniques pear farmers use to align the diverse seasonal cycles of various pear varieties. The film begins in autumn with soil preparation and tree protection, progresses through the labor-intensive winter of flower bud pruning and grafting, transitions into spring with fruit growth, and culminates in the summer harvest. While the video may appear documentary-like, it is transformed through the viewer’s bodily awareness.

About the Artist

CHEN Liang-Hsuan earned her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation in 2016, after completing her graduate studies in Fine Arts at Taipei National University of the Arts in 2012. Her artistic practice often explores the passage of time and space within specific environments, deploying temporal sequences within physical contexts. By using images to convey narratives and combining sound with spatial installations, Chen blends experimental documentary styles with elements of home video, creating a surreal space that merges Taiwanese daily life, personal memories, and dreams.

Production Team

Director: Liang-Hsuan Chen

Cinematography:Liang-Hsuan Chen, Anpis Wang

Editing & Post-production:Liang-Hsuan Chen

On-site Sound Recording:Liang-Hsuan Chen, Yu-Hsuan Liao

Sound Design: Sen Sen Shen

Music Design: Ilya Selikov

Exhibition Documentation: Po-Yen Hsu, Chi-An Chu