Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Human Nature Study(Taishin Tower): Teng Chao-Ming
Exhibition Dates: March 7 to April 15, 2022

Teng Chao-Ming's artistic theme revolves around human’s collective consciousness. Throughout his practice, Teng experiments and debates concepts such as agency, structure and uncertainty and transforms his studies into works of art and experiences. His past works include transformations of well-known works by Taiwanese authors such as the blockbuster movie A Brighter Summer Day (1991), the legendary folk song Rainy Night Flowers (1934) and the controversial modernist novel Family Catastrophe (1973), etc., taking Taiwan society as an example to demonstrate the possibilities of agencies among social structures. In recent years, the artist has begun new experiments, using grids in white background components to build new spaces or intervene in existing spaces, with recordings of stories Teng writes and/or different objects in spaces to capture the ever-changing human consciousness and systemic structures.

"To me, these grids of black lines on white backgrounds reflect certain longings of the human: purity, cleanliness, orientation, measurement, standardization, connectivity and scale, infinity, limitations, repetition, organization and classification, etc. It is the reason why and how the grids symbolize technical objects such as computer programs and virtual spaces, because these technical objects have the same longings. This quality also allows technical objects to interact and communicate with humans. I should also note, desire brings fear, and this duality reveals the uncertainty of human nature.”

This time, in the lobby of Taishin Tower, the artist places these grid objects at different positions in the space to create a temporary virtual space that coexists with the existing physical space. Viewers can scan the QR Code on the document and listen to the recordings prepared by the artist, specifically written for this space. The content of this recording adopts the tone of guidance and training, and the lobby, the people passing by and the daily events are foregrounded to the audience, allowing them to contemplate with a study provided by the artist.

Listen Online→Training Session Ep.1 (Taishin Tower) 

Aritst / Teng Chao-Ming

Teng Chao-Ming, graduated from the School of Architecture and Planning (Media Arts and Sciences program) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been invited to residency programs including The Arctic Circle,  Villa Arson (FR) and Para Site (HK). Recent shows (selected) include Taipei Biennial (TW, 2012), Dojima River Biennial (JP, 2013), ALTERing-NATIVism─Sound Cultures in Post-War Taiwan (TW, 2014), Discordant Harmony (Korea, 2015), Hiroshima Trilogy: Part III (Hiroshima MOCA, Japan, 2015), Public Spirits (Warsaw CCA, Poland, 2016), Radical Forms of Writings, (TW, 2017), Metahistory (TW, 2018), Mercurial Boundaries (TW, 2019), Rotating Exploded View Diagram of Historiography (TW, 2019), Sound Meridians (TW, 2020), Double Echoing (Gwangju Biennale, C-Lab Pavilion, Korea, 2021), among others. He is completing a public art commission by the STOA169 Foundation (Germany), which will be open to the public this summer.