Sometimes I think, if fate had led me to sign with that gallery, perhaps I would still be living a life like the one I live now. I long for a steady income, to give me a sense of security, but I also have the ambition to bring my plans to fruition. Thus, I have chosen to work in art administration and exhibition planning, which I do very well, and because I love to make art, I have continued my personal creative practice.

When I encountered five other art administrators who also play double roles (or even multiple roles) as artists –Wu Hong-Hong, Chen S'Han, Chen Hui-Chiao, Wang Te-Yu, and Lee Jo-Mei – it was the starting point of this exhibition. They have all received formal art training, and have consistently worked hard at their own artistic careers. An even more meaningful point of commonality they share is that they are not satisfied to simply focus on their own art; in contrast to the full-time artist’s quest for self-actualization, they all work, create and contribute from broad vantage points of art history and the art industry.

Chen Hui-Chiao has run IT Park for nearly three decades. Happily busy as both artist and director, she lives a rich, balanced life, but of course, this state of contentment has only been achieved through a host of tests and struggles. Hui-Chiao is also like a mother looking after many children. In addition to the artistic value of her own creations, she joined forces with a group of artists to co-found a space run by artists. IT Park has become a responsibility close to her heart, and through the special quality of its space, the content of its art, and the role it plays in fostering criticism and discussion, it has made an indelible contribution to the development of Taiwanese contemporary art. When she applies the uniqueness and professional training she possesses as an artist to the purpose of art administration and business management, it seems like a natural-born talent, as she puts to good effect the aesthetic cultivation she has internalized. Moreover, her vision and her ambition are different from those of the non-artist, exhibiting irreplaceable intuition and powers of judgment that have borne rich fruit. The artworks exhibited in the show are like countless ping pong balls and beads that collectively form a bed in dreamland; however, when viewers standing in this dreamland, they clearly feel the existence of the space. Just as no boundaries stand between Chen Hui-Chiao’s dreams and reality, creation and administration work together to produce a grand undertaking.

Dual roles afford different angles of view that stir up creativity. Wang Te-Yu went from artist-in-residence to staff member at Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts. As a part of her work, she often comes in contact with other artists and groups, and the succession of exhibitions she has organized has allowed her to absorb a diversity of insights. Unlike the dimension of thought at play when making art in isolation, when Te-Yu focuses her creative energies on that unique moment of perception that takes place between viewer and artwork, the everyday work of art administration magically infuses her art with ever more bountiful visual perspectives. The people with which she interacts in her work, and the sensory experiences bound up with people, have naturally developed a special importance in her art.

Having worked at Open Contemporary Art Center for several years, much of Lee Jo-Mei’s art is an expression, and a transmutation, of her feelings about her personal daily experiences. Through different channels, she allows life’s experiences to be re-experienced, seen again, considered afresh. Jo-Mei intensely loves working in the art industry, which she views as a means to measure life in the art community. She always views her work as a way to observe and research an art community within an artistic habitat, an angle, a position, a method she has adopted as an “individual within a group or an art community.” This deep involvement is why she can even do minor chores with enthusiasm. It is where her passion lies. Again and again she switches roles from work to art, moving from one identity to the other, and every time she returns to creation, she is always able to truly feel the vital energy of creativity coursing through her system. Currently serving an artist residency in Sydney, Australia, she is now fully concentrating on her role as an artist. Pursuing an art project centered on the Blue Mountains, one of Sydney’s scenic wonders, she is attempting to find a method and a position by which to view herself from different angles, and to introduce a different milieu (Sydney) into a Taipei art space, symbolizing a state in which she switches or juxtaposes dual/multiple roles/perspectives.

Chen S'Han, who also works at Open Contemporary Art Center, also takes joy in her administrative work. For her, art does not belong exclusively to the individual. Within an art community, every role she plays has great value. In this exhibition, S'Han has pooled energies with family members, in a video and photography project documenting the construction of their home. She has shifted among various different roles, communicating, negotiating, laboring, photographing, creating and producing.

The year I completed my graduate studies at New York University, I was 24. Burdened with millions of Taiwan dollars in school debt, I decided, quite pragmatically, to jump into the work force as soon as I graduated, in order to make my monthly principal and interest payments. Luckily, I quickly found a job at Cai Studio, as an assistant to CaiGuo-Qiang – an artist who determined, when he first became aware of such a thing as “work,” to never have a 9-to-5 office job, but has truly earned boundless income from his art and his artworks. I never said anything to Mr. Cai and his wife Wu Hong-Hong, but one time when I was arranging some files, I came across a photo of the two of them painting together from thirty years before. On the back of the photo were written the words: “A prelude to how we’ll spend half our life.” I found those words, and that picture, very touching.

Hong-Hong is an outstanding artist, and she is also an awe-inspiring art administrator. On CaiGuo-Qiang’s behalf, she answers inquiries about exhibitions, handles artwork sales, manages exhibition installations, and oversees the studio’s affairs both big and small. I always recall how she used to paint together with Mr. Cai, creating a plethora of beautiful art. Her works featured in this exhibition, in addition to that extraordinarily meaningful old snapshot, include her video installation Renovation. It features over a hundred technical drawings for the renovation of Cai Studio, together with a 15-minute soliloquy that approaches a chant, on the triviality and complexity of administrative work. Hong-Hong has turned a scenario such as this into a work of art. Wearing the two hats of supervisor and creator, she has intuitively treated the many different moments of life and work through the eyes of an artist.

I have called this exhibition “Considerate Creations.” I chose the word “considerate” because most art administrators work hard behind the scenes, taking charge of creative planning, administrative coordination, business management, negotiation, event execution...so that an art project can successfully come to fruition. Undeniably, not everyone who receives professional training in fine art has the chance to become a professional artist who makes art full-time or gets represented by a gallery. Likewise, not everyone with a background in art or administration can become an art administrator with outstanding qualifications. When one simultaneously pursues art and art management, administrative and curatorial work become just as enticing as art itself. One comes into contact with more strata, becomes engaged with wider concerns, and has broader influence. In this exhibition these five artists (and I) live in a state of double identity, representing the roles and the qualities one must fulfill to make one’s dreams come true. While affirming art, we also hope our considerate creations will facilitate rumination on a variety of levels and value judgments at many different dimensions.