Tina Keng Gallery (Taipei) presents A Space Elsewhere, featuring Chiang Yomei’s most recent works. The exhibition includes oil paintings and works on paper, as well as the installations I can see what I am (2013) from the Famen series, which are an extension of the series of environmental installations Chiang created for the redevelopment of the ancient Famen Temple Complex in Xi’an, China.

The title of this exhibition was inspired by a sentence in French phenomenologist Gaston Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space" (1958): "Immensity is within ourselves. ...As soon as we become motionless, we are elsewhere; we are dreaming in a world that is immense." Chiang's works reflect her interest in the fleeting, indistinct nature of relative reality, and the boundless potential that lies beyond a relative viewpoint. She says: "I think when we work with imagery, whether through words or on a purely visual level, our fundamental concern remains elemental. We are in essence addressing the root of all existing matter, in order to connect with the universes we are a part of, and where possible with each other, on a primal level." The Famen Series of installations were inspired by meditating on the nature of reality through reflection. Chiang explains: "When two mirrored surfaces are parallel to each other, light will reflect back and forth indefinitely, creating an illusion of infinite space. As there is no subject to reflect, no object is reflected. What you get is a sense of emptiness. On the other hand, when an object is placed before a mirror, you get a relative relationship: there is a subject so there is an object. One viewpoint is boundless, the other is limited." To Chiang, life is fluid and impermanent, and because of that also full of potential. Her works evoke its ephemeral nature, emphasizing the elusiveness of identity, and the possibilities beyond boundaries.

About the artist:

Chiang Yomei was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1961, and now lives and works in London. In 1984, she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kent at Canterbury, double-majoring in History and Theory of Art and English Literature. After Kent, she continued to study Chinese Art History at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Since 1989 Chiang has been focused on the fine arts and in 1994 received another BA, this time in Fine Art, from the Winchester School of Art. As a devoted Buddhist, she also nurtures her strong interest in philosophy, psychology, mythology as well as quantum physics, the pursuit of which along with her great love of music, film, and literature have become inextricably linked to her creative work. Notable exhibitions include the solo shows Spark at the Tina Keng Gallery, Taipei and Beijing (2011) and On Board the Lotus Express at the Maya Gallery, London (2007); the group show Panorama of a New Generation (2001) at Bernard Chauchet Contemporary Art, London, and the installations and performances Falling Out of Time (1996) in London and Heal Me (1994) in Taipei.

-Tina Keng Gallery

Image: © Chiang Yomei