Hsi Shih-Pin: The Party Before Boarding The Noah’s Ark
Exhibition Dates: March 11 to April 19, 2019
7:9 Two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
You told me that you were leaving for the US to study. I wished you a safe voyage and much happiness
Years later, the news of your wedding reached my ears.
7:12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
At the dinner party, people had a good time talking about the past; but there was only silence between you and me.
Outside the restroom, you took hold of me in private. Looking at me innocently, you said with a smile, “I’m sorry.”
After the flood, Noah’s ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Finally, God set the rainbow as the sign of the covenant, promising that earth shall never again be cursed because of humanity and all living creatures shall continue for perpetual generations.
9:16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.
In The Party Before Boarding The Noah’s Ark, the artist presents The Noah’s Ark, a spacecraft made of aluminum posts and piloted by Knight Captain, leading all animals on board to an unknown land. The metallic sheen and texture of the spacecraft and the delicate forms of the animals conveys a mesmerizing visual perception. Polyhedron Lion, as a guardian of the vessel, demonstrates the unique bearing of a lion with an angular contour outlined with geometric shapes and metal plates.
The theme of the exhibition is inspired by the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, in which Noah built an ark per God’s command to shelter the animals from the flood. It is stated in the Bible that “two by two” the animals enter the ark, “male and female.” This scenario reminds the artist of a wedding feast. Therefore, the day before the embarkation would be the day of the bachelor or bachelorette party when the singles are not yet left behind and can still have a good time together.
Hsi Shih-Pin often employs the approach of deconstruction and reconstruction in tangible visual structures as well as in the conception and development of his creative work. His works tell stories of bidding farewell, which stem from fading fragments in daily life that are reconstructed as splendid installations mixed with imagination and memory.
Aritst / Hsi Shih-Pin
Hsi Shih-Pin was born in 1977. He was awarded the grant of the Asian Cultural Council in 2012, and was invited to create a large solo exhibition, entitled Memory Palace, at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. He has also collaborated with and commissioned by various international fashion brands, including Hermès and Louis Vuitton, to create artworks.
Hsi specializes in creating sculptures with a see-through visuality and elaborate, structures, rendering his work highly recognizable among artists of his generation in Taiwan. His creative theme combines quotidian scenes and objects with mythological imagination and literary language, integrating classical anatomy and contemporary craft techniques to give birth to fantastic and splendid installations.
Collaborator｜Hou Wu-Syong
Born in Taipei, 1981 and works with His Shih-Pin as a collaborator since 2010.
