A Dweller on Two Planets
Ayoung Kim, Yin-Ju Chen, Sow Yee Au, Su Yu Hsin
June 29 – July 29, 2023
Curated by Alice, Nien-pu Ko
Opening Reception Thursday June 29, 6-8pm
Image courtesy of the artist
Installation Views
Press:
The Brooklyn Rail, by Ann McCoy
Microscope is very pleased to present “A Dweller on Two Planets,” a group exhibition curated by Alice, Nien-pu Ko featuring new and recent works in video and video installation by four East Asian and Southeast Asian woman artists: Ayoung Kim, Yin-Ju Chen, Sow Yee Au, and Su Yu Hsin.
From Alice, Nien-pu Ko:
Inspired by the early science fiction novel, ‘A Dweller on Two Planets,’ by Frederick Spencer Olive, this exhibition suggests some possibilities for cultural engagement today. This story of time-traveling consciousness, revealed by an Eastern spirit, depicts imaginary submerged ancient civilizations that have developed futuristic technology and scientific discoveries, including holograph-like art works and interplanetary cohabitation. This fictional story discloses a vision of human existence in the future, where the co-existence between East and West extends into outer space. Taking these speculations as a starting point, this exhibition links four media artists based in Asia. Together, their recent works explore cultural interference, remixing historical events and colonial legacy in order to develop an alternative narrative that suggests a mode of planetary thinking with regards to immigration, futurism, and nature.
Chen Yin-Ju’s “Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 2580” (2018) contemplates human civilization and humanity’s future through an investigation of space physics, extraterrestrial myths, and cosmography. By using hypotheses and prophecies founded upon a choreography of fragments of history, as well as mass media imagery and information, eponymous video ‘Extrastellar Evaluations III: Entropy: 25800’ attempts to reveal when exactly doomsday takes place. This video further adapts the notion of ‘entropy’ from the second law of thermodynamics, and connects it to the avarice and belligerence of human nature. Interspersed in the video are the narrations of a non-human intelligence named ‘Ra’ affirming that everything is the distortion of the one infinite Creator.
In “Blast Furnace No. 2” (2022), Su Yu Hsin weaves together archival materials, documentary film, sound, and interview excerpts into a fictional narrative, which provides a kaleidoscopical perspective of the metal iron. “Blast Furnace No. 2,” tells the story of a filmmaker who comes to Hattingen, Germany for a shoot. She follows the trail of Lin, a Chinese translator who accompanied the dismantling of the blast furnace in 1990. Shortly before the closure of the Henrichshütte, blast furnace 2 was purchased by a Chinese steel mill, transported away, and rebuilt in Hunan. Lin has left behind an unfinished sci-fi novel. In the novel, the protagonist develops a utopian machine in the form of a blast furnace. With this device, she catapults herself into space with the goal of finding an alternative energy source to replace coal. The filmmaker continues the story by speculating on the year 2050: Had mankind been able to solve the energy problem by then? By switching between a planetary and locale scale “Blast Furnace No. 2” examines the interconnections between geological and social history, globalization, and resource extraction, which have shaped not only the fate of the workers from Hattingen and Hunan but also — regarding climate change — the future of life on earth for millenniums to come.
Au Sow Yee reveals the underside of ‘image-making’ while exploring the hidden dynamics of national borders and the political and historical ties between Taiwan, Japan, and Malaysia. “2 Electric, Cosmos and the Seance” (2022), focuses on a historical figure, Tani Yutaka, also known as “Harimau” (meaning “tiger” in Malay), a bandit who served as a secret agent for the Japanese military in Peninsular Malaysia during the Pacific War. The artist thus uses the changing conceptions of Yutaka in popular culture to reflect upon the fluid boundaries and the dynamics of power in the South China Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean, while exploring diverse aspects of Japan, Taiwan, and ASEAN countries. In doing so, she compels us to consider how unbalanced forces related to borders, wars, religions, and beliefs, are embedded within fictional artifacts of history.
Ayoung Kim’s “At the Surisol Underwater Lab” (2020) is a work of speculative fiction that is set in the near future, just after the COVID-19 global pandemic of 2020. In the wake of climate change and the depletion of natural resources brought on by fossil fuels, eco-friendly biofuels have become society’s main energy source. The chief source of energy in the world is algae — macro-algae that are fermented to produce biofuel. In the Korean city of Busan, a ‘biomass town’ has been established over a long belt stretching from Gijang to the waters near the Oryukdo Islands. Surisol Underwater Lab, which manages an integrated process involving seaweed farming, water quality, ocean currents, and biomass, is also located in the area of the Oryukdo Islands. Sohila, a former humanitarian status holder who left Yemen to escape the Yemen War, is a senior researcher at the lab conducting the investigation into the waters. She hears good news and bad news from Surisol and sends Turbo Shell (the remotely operated vehicle) to conduct reconnaissance in the waters in question.
“A Dweller on Two Planets” opens Thursday June 29th and continues through July 29th. Opening Reception: Thursday June 19th, 6-8pm. For further information please contact the gallery at inquiries@microscopegallery.com or by phone at 347.925.1433.
Courtesy of the artist
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Ayoung Kim (b.1979, South Korea) has held solo shows and events at various venues, including Gallery Hyundai, Seoul, Korea (2022); Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan (2022); Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil (2021); Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea (2018); Melbourne Festival, Melbourne, AU (2017); and Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2016) and created performances at the national opera house in Paris, Palais Garnier, Paris (2016) and at MMCA (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea), Seoul and Gwacheon (2020, 2016).
Her group shows screenings and performances include Sharjah Biennial, Sharjah, UAE (2023); HEK (House of Electronic Arts Basel), Basel, Switzerland (2023); International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2023); Asian Art Biennial, Taichung, Taiwan (2021); Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2021); IMPAKT Festival, Utrecht, Netherlands (2020); Busan Biennale, Busan, Korea (2020); Berlin International Film Festival, Berlin, Germany (2020); Korea Artist Prize, MMCA Seoul, Korea (2019); Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (2018); Kunsthal Aarhus, Aarhus (2018); CAC Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge (2018) and Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2015). Ayoung Kim has been an artist in residence at Pavillon Neuflize OBC Research Lab, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2015-2016) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2011). Kim is a recipient of the Golden Nica Award, Prix Ars Electronica, Austria (2023), C/O Berlin Digital Fellowship (2022), the Best Film Award from Chuncheon SF Film Festival, Korea (2020), Young Artist of the Year Award presented by the Ministry of Culture, Korea (2015) and the British Institution Award presented by the Royal Academy of Arts, UK (2010).’
Yin-Ju Chen (b.1977, Taiwan) lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan, is a multidisciplinary artist, working in video, photography, drawing, and multi-media installation. She interprets social power and history through cosmological systems. Utilizing astrology, sacred geometries, and alchemical symbols, she considers human behavior, nationalism, imperialism, state violence, totalitarianism, utopian formations, and collective thinking. Recently, she has been exploring the material effects of spiritual, shamanic, and Buddhism practices and the metaphysical potentialities of consciousness.
She has participated in many international exhibitions and film festivals, such as ‘Exterior: The Science of Collective Consciousness’ at Tate Modern Starr Cinema (UK, 2023), ‘Close Your Eyes and You Will Know: Another Knowledge Is Possible II’ at ICA at NYU Shanghai, ‘The Modern Exorcist’ and ‘Art Histories of a Forever War: Modernism between Space and Home’ at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TW, 2021), ‘Space Oddity’ at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (CN, 2021), Taipei Biennial (TW, 2020, 2012, touring to Centre Pompiduo-Metz in 2021), Gwangju Biennale (KR 2021), the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art (RU, 2019), International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL, 2018, 2011), Transmediale (DE, 2018), Liverpool Biennial (UK, 2016), Forum Expanded at 66th Berlinale (DE, 2016), Biennial of Sydney (AU, 2016), ‘Yin-Ju Chen: Extrastellar Evaluations’ (US, 2016), ‘Action at a Distance–Yin-Ju Chen Solo Exhibition’ (TW, 2015), Shanghai Biennial (CN, 2014), ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ (HK, touring to KR, US, TW 2013-2014), the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum Biennale (CN, 2014). From 2010-2011, she was one of the artist-in-residence at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten (NL). In 2016 she was invited to the residency program at KADIST San Francisco to work on her first solo exhibition in the US. Yin-Ju Chen lives and works in Taipei.
Sow Yee Au (b. 1978, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan, is a multimedia artist whose work explores the authority of the film medium in the production of memory and power. Working from the blind spots created by official historical records, Au’s films assert the presence of people who would otherwise be made invisible. The artist explores fictional, mysterious narratives, embedded within musical and archival sources. Directing a theatre of belief and disbelief, her practice leads viewers through a retraced history. With a focus on complicating the relationship of the audience to production, she also investigates the disappearance of mechanical and live elements in cinema, allowing traditionally hidden aspects of image-making to remain in view.
She has participated in many international exhibitions and film festivals, such as Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), Busan Biennale (2022); The Secret South: From Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection, Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2020); Taiwan Biennial: Subzoology, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2020); Once Upon a Future, Nichido Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2020); Letter. Callus. Post-War, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2019); Taipei Biennial (2018); Metahistory, TKG+ Project, Taipei (2018); Tell Me a Story: Locality and Narrative, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy (2018); Condition Report: ESCAPE from the SEA, Kuala Lumpur (2017); Condition Report: Mode of Liaisons, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (2017); 2 or 3 Tigers, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017); Towards Mysterious Realities, Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei (2016); Portrait Portrait, TCAC (Taipei Contemporary Art Center) (2016); Flags, Transnational—Migrants and Outlaw Territories, Tokyo Wonder Site (2016); Tell Me a Story: Locality and Narrative, Shanghai Rockbund Art Museum (2016); A Gaze at the Contemporary, Urban Nomad X TCAC, Taipei (2016); and Tropical Seasoning, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, Buffalo (2014).
Su Yu Hsin (b.1989, Taichung, Taiwan) is an artist and filmmaker based in Berlin. She approaches ecology from the point of view of its close relationship with technology. Her artistic practice is strongly research-oriented and involves fieldwork where she investigates the political ecologies of water. Her work reflects on technology and the critical infrastructure in which the human and non-human converge. Her analytical and hydroponic storytelling focuses on map-making, operational photography, and the technical production of geographical knowledge. Her video installations are exhibited worldwide in museums and International Art Biennials: the Centre Pompidou-Metz, the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Taipei Biennial 2020, ZKM Karlsruhe, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among others. Her films have been shown at Kurzfilm Festival in Hamburg and Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul. Recently she has her solo exhibition Wet Mechanics of Seeing at Kunsthalle Winterthur.
Alice, Nien-Pu Ko, who lives and works both in Taipei and New York, is a curator and writer on contemporary art, film, video, sound, and interdisciplinary projects. Her projects focused on how art creates a space of mediation re-evaluating different histories and contouring modes of perception through alternative aesthetic forms. At Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, she was the co-curator of the retrospectives Tony Oursler: Black Box (2021), Pan Austro-Nesian Arts Festival (2021), and the curator of Tomb of the Soul, Temple, Machine and the Self (2018) which was nominated for the 17th Taishin Arts Award, Taiwan. She was also involved in the curatorial team touring SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now, organized by Mori Art Museum in collaboration with Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in 2019. Recently, she was a curator-in-residence at International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York in 2022.
Previously, she worked with major art institutions and museums such as Taiwan National Art Foundation, Taipei; Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo; Bengal Foundation, Dhaka; Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism \ Architecture, Hong Kong; Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, among others. Her selected curatorial exhibitions include Flags, Transnational – Migrants and Outlaw Territories (2016), Beyond the Borderline – Exiles from the Native Land (2015), and Reverse Niche – Dialogue and Rebuilding at the City’s Edge (2013). Her recent writing includes catalogs and reviews on Angel Otero, Chen Chieh-Jen, Dumb Type, Ho Tze Nyen, Shigeko Kubota, Jane Jin Kaisen, Lala Ruhk, Rashid Johnson, etc. Her curatorial studies were presented at The 11th International Convention of Asia Scholars, ICAS, Amsterdam in 2019, and the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Conference, Seoul, Korea in 2017. She was the guest editor of the publication Surviving on Time: Curatorial Report from Asia.
Courtesy of the artist
Courtesy of the artist