Express Time & Space Delivery—from Deification to Time-space Sampling
Tan Sian WuaSolo Exhibition
Time | 2016/03/14 - 2016/04/29
Venue | 1st Floor Lobby of Taishin Holdings Building
The exhibition is free of charge.
Artist Statement
Inspired by construction workers, I used workers as a theme and created sculptures of workers wearing Buddha masks to destabilize people’s stereotypical impression of workers. This time, I am invited by Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture to present an exhibition in an architectural space rather than a museum. To continue the issue I addressed before, I have proposed a new series of work, titled Express Time & Space Delivery, which revisits the role of workers and reflects upon the relationship between an architectural space and construction workers, revealing the reality that workers would eventually leave after the completion of the building.
I imagined construction machineries moving around in the construction site before this building was completed, and used techniques of molding to recreate parts of heavy machineries used in the construction, such as a grab from a diaphragm walling machine, a track from an amphibious hydraulic excavator, and a joint from a hydraulic crusher. (Note) As if unearthing fossils from past time and space, I installed these machine parts back into the completed architectural space and delineated the absent figures, namely “the laboring workers.” Meanwhile, four sculptures from the series of workers wearing Buddha masks are presented together with the new works: a worker wearing a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva mask, two cement workers wearing a Maitreya Bodhisattva mask and a Guanyin Bodhisattva mask, and a mover with a mask of a flying goddess.
This exhibition reveals a change of direction in my work as the creative subject has shifted from figures to construction machines, the creative approach has moved from sculpturing to sampling of physical objects, and the artistic form has changed from sculpture to installation. Nevertheless, they all point to my concern and respect of workers.
All beautiful things are produced during the process of interweaving wisdom and labor. The workers behind the masks have disappeared among the gigantic machines.
Toiled..., but no longer present.
Yet, not forgotten.
(Note: A diaphragm walling machine is used to dig out the cementing space for making structural walls. After cementing, a hydraulic crusher goes in to remove spilled and unwanted cement.)
