Project Fulfill Art Space is pleased to present Therefore, X=X., a solo exhibition of artist Teng Chao-Ming. One common theme of the presented four works, created from 2009 to 2014, is they are all transformation of seminal works previously created by different authors. Taipei People Drawing (2009), A Monument for the (Im)possibility of Figuring it Out (2012), To Sing or Not To Sing? (2014) and A Famili-ar Catastrophe (2014) are based on, respectively: Taipei People (a collection of fourteen short stories published in 1971 by writer Pai Hsien-yung), A Brighter Summer Day (a film released in 1991 by filmmaker Edward Yang), A Flower in the Rainy Night (a Taiwanese pop song written in 1934 by Teng Yu-Shien and Chou Tien-Wong), and A Family Catastrophe (a novel published in 1973 by writer Wang Wenxing). Through researching the authors, the context, content/structures, debates and influences of these works, the artist then transform them via carefully designed media, form, and entry points. In Teng's creations, we can see his interests and questions toward text, narratives, causality, histories and memories, and his capability of mobilizing different metaphors, visual languages, and conceptual systems to produce art that invites the audience to think with. Although not conceived as a series, these four works, when put together, construct a space for the audience to reflect on the changing socio-political environment, and the individual-collective consciousness of the Taiwanese society.

"The uneasy and awkward feeling I have toward narratives makes the encounters with them often times become battles. I give in when I believe in what a piece of narrative is trying to say, losing myself in it; I attack it when I see its strategies/tactics and spot its weakness, then try to tear down its argument. These battles continues as I keep reading materials I gathered about these original works, until I figure out a way to reach a temporary stability, a local equilibrium. That is the moment these new pieces take shape. My starting point and methods are not so much interpreting or criticizing the referenced work. I see these works as previous events, and as time passes happens the encounters, then new pieces/events emerged. Encounters with the audience will surely destabilize these works, and the challenges I face, is to make these new events diverse, reflective, and interesting. There will be, of course, cases when the audience meets my work, they see dead-ends, which are of equal interests to me."

Teng Chao-Ming was born and currently lives in Taipei, Taiwan. After graduating from the Media Arts and Science program from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2007, he moved to and stayed in New York until late 2012, he then relocated to Taipei. Recent shows include Modern Monsters/Death and Life of Fiction, Taipei Biennial, Taipei, 2012, little water, Dojima Biennial, Osaka, 2013, The Romance of NG, TKG+ Gallery, Taipei, 2013, and Altering-Nativism: Sound Cultures in Post-War Taiwan, MoNTUE, Taipei, and Kaohsiung Fine Arts Museum, Kaohsiung, 2014 (touring show).

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and Project Fulfill Art Space