Blue Lake, Pink Land, Patched Sphere, Fresh Wound
"This text is difficult to write because of the failure that awaits. The more I expose, the more unbearable it might be.
The amount of guilt is overwhelming. In preparing for the exhibition, I looked through images and notes, fragments of thoughts collected in the past year. Usually, these fragments were the resources and inspiration for my work, usually, by making them into images. I responded to my surroundings and the world which I have a connection to, regardless of distance or indirectness. I wish I could find some light or something joyful in the making of the work, but the hope I have found, if there was any, was perhaps only through pain. The pain of different sufferings, the pain of neglect, conflict, misunderstanding and disagreements. Looking at what has happened in the past year, putting those events into words only provoked shame. Besides talking about them, what else could I have done? Shall I continue to describe the endless conflicts which should have ended, and the different forms of tragedies that we all heard about more than often enough? Should I hide into a virtual world or pretend all is good? (I have lost my position arguing with my son that his virtual obsession is not valid.) So where is the hope that I could find through these pains?
Perhaps making art is just to stay alert, that we still need to learn how to see and to know. The inability to understand the world is inescapable, and, as an artist, a teacher and a father, I feel the insufficiency, that I cannot have enough knowledge to dissect or to analyze things happening around us, even if I keep trying to read and to learn. With limited time and energy, like many people, through different platforms and exchanges, what I can dig up and comprehend seems never thorough enough to touch the core, if reality has a core. I cannot understand them, all these happenings. How can I share my thoughts if I cannot see light or hope in this reality? So, I keep searching.
My camera was nevertheless broken. The gyroscope, which helps drones' stability, which defies the law of gravity, and which provides the stabilization for my camera, is malfunctioning. Instead of maintaining balance - the central component is supposed to stay fixed in spite of movement, always pointing in a mysterious yet stable direction - my camera's gyroscope would constantly search for it, with its endless attempts to point to a lost core. Many systems are malfunctioning, and we still figure out how to see the beauty in it, probably because we need to live anyway, and to live is to have joy. I learned to appreciate the hidden message my camera brought to me. What could have been seen in an image might come with enhancement or manipulation not only through machine, through AI, through dictator or through ideology. The making of images might provide a path to approach the hidden core of disconnected reality, but how many details do we need to see so we can believe? How much evidence do we need to encounter to be convinced? Contemporary cameras can already show things which human eyes are unable to observe under normal circumstances, but we remain fixated on the surface of representation and long for something which might still be missing from our eyes. Perhaps the eyes can never be satisfied and are hard to please. Are we only looking at a technologically enhanced combination of simulated reality, or are we looking through its representation and to its essence? What could the essence of reality possibly be anyway?
I read a friend's post online and sadly realized that she might be reaching the limit of her life. She might be fading away, gradually consumed by the illness, and losing her strength to fight, but so far, she is strong. She writes about life with such details that I understand it is not only an appreciation of her reality but also a demonstration of her presence. She needs to see, to express, and so to live. Our understanding of reality is never the reality itself, is it? We have our eyes to see, and our brains to think, and these actions complete the process of perception. Without thinking, does seeing actually exist? Or is it simply void? If we look at the ongoing war without thinking, are we still seeing it? Isn't listening a process of understanding the world as well? I wonder what can still be considered a global citizen's responsibility.
Looking at our contribution to the local society, paying attention afar, worrying about the global crisis, participating in the curiosity of exploring the universe, our excitement is also tamed by guilt, the guilt that some food is better to not consume, some products are better not to use. All action has its related consequence, and our knowledge of reality needs to be revised regularly, so some lies won't be taken for granted, and some manipulation can be seen through. We are no longer simply looking at the surface, are we, but how can we get closer to the essence of things in our world? How can we still take responsibility and care if all these truths are buried beneath calculated manipulation, and how much time and strength do we still have to keep digging, to understand, and to appreciate? Isn't our life going to end someday as well? I looked at my friend's face and thanked her for sharing her glimpse of life.
I told my son Shaore the title of the image in this exhibition of his hand. It is called Wounded Hand. He responded, "It's not a wound. It's a blister. You are too soft." I looked at the revealed pink flesh and felt surprised, but also realized that maybe it's true, that I am worried about the collapse of the world, but he has prepared himself to fight and to move forward.
The endless fires, the unresolved war, corruption, injustice, bullying, conspiracy, extreme weather… what is giving us hope? I searched and found no way out, but he took it lightly while criticizing the out-of-balanced world more harshly than me. Does it mean he is strong, or simply that he is younger, or perhaps the fact that I see no light for him doesn't reduce his pleasure in life. He projects light.
The balance is so hard to reach. Where to ship the grain, which government to agree with, or to fight against, where to find the mineral to make batteries, how best to switch to green energy? After the pandemic, some of the screws that assure the steady rotation of the world seem to have loosened. Voyager 2 was losing contact with earth, and the moon is slowly spinning away from us. We look at AI-generated content, worrying that facts and fakes are mixed, but was the world really more clear or earnest before? Manipulated narratives, dominant ideologies, and quarrels never stop.
Perhaps the pleasure the younger generation has found is not much different to what we used to have. A little sugar, a little knowledge, a little pride, a little achievement, a little understanding, a little company. Perhaps time is fair, and if we no longer have ways to argue for improvement, we can just look and stay silent, and let time run through us." - Chih-Chien Wang, Sept 6, 2023
Chih-Chien Wang was born in Taiwan and lives in Montreal since completing a master's degree in the Department of Studio Arts, at Concordia University in 2002. He studied previously in cinema and theatre at the Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan. In 2018 he was appointed assistant professor in photography at Concordia University. Recent solo exhibitions include Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto (2022), Plein Sud (2019), Kunstlerhaus Bethenien (2016), Art Gallery of Mississauga (2015), Darling Foundry in Montreal (2015), Expression in Saint-Hyacinthe (2014), Musée régional de Rimouski (2013), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2012), and numerous group shows, including at the Kamploops Art Gallery (BC), Justina M Barnicke (U of Toronto), Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, The Quebec Triennial at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the National Gallery of Canada, Leonard and Bina Ellen Art Gallery in Montreal, Zenith Gallery in Beijing, Aperture in New York, Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne Switzerland. The Canada Council for the Arts awarded Wang the 2017 Duke and Duchess of York Prize in Photography, and he received the Prix Louis-Comtois awarded by the Ville de Montréal and AGAC in 2020.
Wang's work has entered important collections such as the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec, the National Gallery of Canada, Hydro Quebec, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank, Global Affairs Canada, Caisse Desjardins, Caisse de dépôt et placement, the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Switzerland, Giverny Capital, BMO Financial Group, City of Montreal and Canada Council Art Bank.
The Canada Council of the Arts awarded Wang the 2017 Duke and Duchess of York Prize in photography. Throughout the remainder of 2023, Chih-Chien Wang will unveil two public art projects: a series of large-scale photographs at the newly constructed Panama REM station, and in the reconstruction of City Hall in the Old Port of Montreal.
"My practice is dedicated to developing an understanding of individual perceptions about reality through examining the construction of image, object, language, identity, memory and emotion while bringing attention to the process of art making. This dedication attempts to explore instead of concluding, by proposing multiple perspectives rather than one fixed strategy to expand on specific experiences. Ultimately, multiple attempts at exploration bring forth seemingly insignificant fragments and gather a focus on banality that embodies and reflects on the intricacy of personal experiences."- CCW
