We readily believe everything we see, so accustomed to the reality before our eyes. But when the day-to-day becomes routine and ordinary objects appear in curious ways, the sense of déjà vu elicits fragments of memory while deviating from the familiar. How do you respond? As this begins to puzzle you, the act of watching subtly transforms into the act of gazing, and a dialogue unfolds between the individual’s memory and the object, quietly opening the door to another experience.
For the Galleries sector of Art Basel in Hong Kong 2018, TKG+ is pleased to present three Taiwanese artists Chia-En Jao (b. 1976), Joyce Ho (b. 1983), and Chen Ching-Yuan (b. 1984). The three artists’ works intertwine to form a meditative response to the question, “How do you regard the reality before your eyes?” Joyce Ho’s impactful site-specific installation On the second day, Saturday, your three minutes… was enthusiastically received in the 2017 Encounters sector. For this year a plain white box made by Ho transforms into a cube of white abstract landscape when lighted from inside, drawing the viewer to come close.
One of the participating artists in the group exhibition Tales of Our Time, Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York in 2016, Chia-En Jao is deeply concerned with identity, marginality, aesthetics, and political systems. His work criticizes and responds to the fossilized system, or the values and ideologies which, shaped by social symbols, dominate history, society, the collective, and the individual. For this year, he presents watercolor works on paper that examine how history is being perused or traded, while weighing aesthetics against morality.
Chen Ching-Yuan’s painting is distinguished by the ambiguity of his imagery. The intricate layers of paint and classical techniques signify his approach to eliciting a sense of history from his cryptic narrative. Recent exhibitions include the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2015) and Asia Triennial Manchester (2014).
Established in Taipei in 2009, TKG+ promotes and supports the most interesting and significant contemporary art from Asia. The gallery works with emerging artists and privileges experimentation in art across different mediums, from video and photography to installation and new media. By proposing the question, “How do you regard the reality before your eyes?” TKG+ initiates a dialogue that leads the viewer out of the reality construed by consciousness and into the subconscious, while probing into truth and reality, as well as the relationship between contemporary art and the viewer.