OU x WANG
Ou Chun-Song, the artist who manipulates the spaces
Wang Bing-Fu, the friend who writes poems
As friends since high school, Ou plays the role of a mysterious listener in their group. They co-created art in the past--Wang writes poems while Ou makes illustrations. However, they never truly collaborated, nor did they ever discuss Ou's art.
"I recognized a shared struggle in Ou's art and my own." Despite seeing Ou's art for the first time, Wang was able to connect with him on a profound level. As Ou "reserves" gaps for audience interpretation, Wang calls him a "cunning" creator.
#space #onsite #manipulate #audience #experience
PILGRIMS
This book is about art museums, not artworks, and it is about audiences. If you want, you can take away the audience in the book.
Created for Editorial Department--An Exhibition of Artists' Books at Taipei Artist Village in 2022,
this book captures and houses the figures of the audience in Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Visitors are free to take away the "audience" in the book.
After the exhibition, some pages were left blank as the sticky notes were torn away.
On other pages, the "audience" figures were switched between pages. They no longer stayed in the same "spaces" as before.
Ou Chun-Song, Pilgrims, Sticky notes and twilight paper, 20 x 20 x 3 cm (20 black-and-white prints), 2022
"CONVERSATIONS" BETWEEN OU AND WANG
"Ou has the tendency to give up his own subjectivity and create a space for others. I identify such a 'vacancy' as the place where Ou is doing the work, and where his characteristic appears." - Wang Bing-Fu
PLACING THE AUDIENCE
AT THE CENTER
OU: "What I do is like reserving gaps for the audiences. Although now I offer you these limited choices, there are still some potential options that I did not offer but could be realized. So when you come to the space, you can follow some of my offerings, or not. It's up to you.”
WANG: "Ou’s designs, on the one hand, give people the feeling that he is peeking into the structure from outside the space, and on the other hand, it gives the impression that Ou has handed you the murder weapon, letting you feel authorized for making decisions.”
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WHO ARE THE
PILGRIMS?
WHO TOOK WHAT?
WANG: (thought of Ou shared that he visited 120 exhibitions in 2022) "So now, since he has been to the TFAM many times, making him feel that he is the owner of the TFMA? Is it because he has seen too many people in his 'small temple,' making him want to create such a work?"
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OU: "Usually, when you visit an art museum, you only see the artworks, not the audience. So, what would happen if I let readers see the audience of the art museum? This would be a vert special experience, right? Ordinary people don't look at an audience so seriously, do they?
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TORN AWAY?
SWAPPED?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
OU: "Just because the clue I provided was that you can tear off the yellow parts of this book, it did not mean you can only do this.” "Why is it always me talking, but why can't you, the audience, speak? I am thus very open to discrepancy in my interpretation and the audience's."
WANG: "The design suggests how people could disappear any time, and it indicates how people become less important regarding the relationship between the viewer and the art. At the same time, it also stresses the importance of the viewers. Thus,I think this highlights the idea that people are both important and not important in museum spaces simultaneously.”
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EXPECTATIONS?
INTERPRETATIONS?
OU: "I believe that being present is the upmost. Participating onsite is the premise for understanding and interpretation...Thus, I thought it to be a good idea to encourage people to participate by augmenting the importance of being present in my work."
WANG: I have recognized a common tendency between Pilgrims and my poems, that they both focus on the form of expression rather than the content. Instead of generating something new, the creation is focusing not the form of expression. I feel this is sometimes dangerous."
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© 2023 Jennifer Chen