Reflexive Image: The Artist and the Image of the Self
Date｜05.16-09.22.2024
Self Gaze: The Artist and the Image of the Self
Date｜04.23-08.18.2024
Venue｜National Center of Photography and Images, Taipei Galleries
The works in the exhibition span over a century of historical and spatial, encompassing various forms of expression such as still photography, performance video, video installation, and digital technology applications. The exhibition explores the various manifestations of self-image in mirrors and the translational thinking behind self-images. Starting from the artist’s identity, it connects to the ideologies among self, others, and alterity, questioning the subject-object relationship in contemporary image production. “Self Gaze” focus on the psychological space of self-awareness for creators, deeply exploring inner selves through subjective creation. “Reflexive Image” explores reflections on diverse topics such as life, beliefs, value systems, social structures, and the pulse of the periods through between oneself and other.
The work Market Gate - Crane Pavilion by Hou I-Ting is an investigation of diversity and co-existence between the visualized context of body and cultural symbols through public spaces, inspired by the 1945 painting Shichangkou of LI Shih-Chiao, an artist who was active during Japanese Rule of Taiwan. This artwork recreates the conflicting aesthetic between a Shanghai girl and her surrounding environment. The Nishi Honganji Temple in Mengjia is used as the background of the photograph, while the artist wears an embroidered costume to create a unique aesthetic of anachronism. Icons and symbols of different cultures are inserted into an environment frequented by common people to investigate diverse co-existence of different cultural symbols from different times when the original stream of iconology has been severed.
The other work Complexing Body - Doberman and Romeo, Hou I-Ting photographs herself in an old, traditional market. Traditional symbols and elements of western art are then used as a reference and directly embroidered onto the image. The surroundings and background of the image shows a traditional market that has yet to be fully capitalized. Icons and symbols of different cultures are inserted into an environment frequented by common people to investigate diverse co-existence of different cultural symbols from different times when the original stream of iconology has been severed.
The series works Usurper by Hou I-Ting projects the popular cultural idols and manga on herself, creating the blurred distortion through overlapping images. The integration between “reality” and “ fiction” results in a situation where the truth becomes indiscernible.
