Chu’s works focus on small quotidian events that he presents in a minimalist narrative with an exquisite realistic panorama, combined with music, to compose poems of images and sounds. The exhibition includes his latest animation Paper Moon, Bruce Lee, and his recent works, all of which he attempts to encourage viewers to observe “ordinary things” in life.

These daily events, or ordinary things, seem to have merely insignificant existences, yet they inspired Chu. Characters in his works include an old man who smokes a cigarette butt that he picks up from the ground, a weird elder collecting cigarette litters, a homeless man who builds up a home at the corner of a street, a grandfather feeding pigeons with his grandson while observing passersby, or Bruce Lee, frustrated due to modern technology. These individuals and events, according to Chu, “though appear like a gentle breeze that is easily neglected, their existences are undoubtedly real.”

Although Chu’s works are his reflections on personal experiences, he tries to distinguish his works from subjective views and emotions. This distinction, producing a sense of mystery, gives the audiences the impression of being in an unearthly world, yet while looking at these ordinary daily events. Such paradoxes in his works elicit questions to the essence of ordinary things in life from viewers and allow viewers to reexamine the quotidian.

About the artist:

Chu Shu-Hsien graduated from the Chinese Culture University in 1999 with a bachelor degree in Fine Arts. In 2003, he joined the Hantoo Art Group, with which he exhibits his works regularly. A Foggy Day (2007), his first short film, was shown at the Taiwan International Animation Festival—Short Subjects Films/Fear, 2007. His works are frequently selected in group exhibitions held by public art organizations, including Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (2011), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2009), and Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (2007). In 2012, his animation Tapir-Go-Around was presented in Local to Local 'Taipei in Busan'-Hantoo art group exhibition in Korea.

Image: © Chu Shu-Hsien, Tina Keng Gallery