[快車下載]皊?淋叫(璣?).jpg：
7 July∼18 August, 2012
Media invitation: July, 2012(Sat.) 15:30-17:00
Reception: July, 2012(Sat.) 17:00-18:30
Venue: Main Trend Gallery / No. 209-1, Chen Der Rd. Sec.
3, Taipei 10365
(Near By MRT Yuan-Shan Station Exit No.1)
Curator: Becky CHO
Artists: Yu-Cheng CHOU, Sung-Chin CHEN, Jam
WU, Chin-Chung DIN
By Becky Cho June 2012
When I returned to Taiwan from a long summer break in California in 2011; I
had an unusual encounter. The chance of having the time and opportunity for a
curatorial project that I had wanted to do for many years, with the invitation
of four outstanding artists in Taiwan
whose works, in my opinion, capture a niche segment of the arts market. Their
works are not only a contemporary statement of Taiwanese society, but also
artistic expressions that speak of and for our community and its governing
elites; hence, giving significance to its title, “Soft Power – The Intangible
Indicator”. Today with more and more artists building diplomacy through their
art within the international arena; these artist’s work contribute to the
concept of globalization through the manipulation of popular culture and
heritage aesthetics.
On the other hand, it is also ironic to
find in the past two decades that globalization also creates the urge for an
emphasis on localization. The arts play a critical role of defining our
humanity, whether regarded as soft power or not. I have chosen these artists
whose works contain “soft power” both in terms of form and metaphor. They are,
as their subtitle suggests, intangible but powerful. They reach out to our
everyday experience through texture, light, fabric, and pattern. “Soft” as they
might seem in form and representation; these artistic statements and subjects,
as presented in a gallery setting, become the desired subject of display;
challenging the eyes of collectors with an appetite for Taiwanese contemporary
arts.
The ambition of “Soft Power” is indeed to
present these works to collectors as an indicator that is intangible but real.
They are the indicator for economic incentive and force, which is not difficult
to trace in terms of how they were developed. The common path of these artists
can be identified in a few ways:
1.They are all within the same age group,
sharing similar higher level arts education background in Taiwan.
2.They have a clear strategy on growing
their career path, picking up some major awards of professional recognition,
while building a social/business network.
3.They all have international artist
residency experience and have worked in an international cultural setting as
part of their development.
4.All material they use or present is
intangible in some ways, soft in its form and substance as part of their
development process.
From the year 2001 – 2008, my professional engagement
as an arts foundation director role in both the public and private sector have
given me numerous opportunities to understand how artists manipulate their
“soft power”, not always necessarily from a political perspective, but that influence
can be quite powerful, especially from an economic standpoint. There is no
simple rule to decode the index of arts market. The fun and challenge rests in those who have the patience to learn the intangible
value behind it.
Public
Relations
Ginnie Hung
+886-2-2587-3412#12
ginnie@maintrendgallery.com.tw
