PLACING THE AUDIENCE AT THE CENTER
Keyword: EXPERIENCE
OU: "I often consider what I want to achieve as a creator and what I want to experience as a viewer..."
Keyword: RESERVED GAP
OU: "Although now I offer you these limited choices, there are still some potential options..."
Keyword: CUNNING
WANG: "Ou’s designs, on the one hand, give people the feeling that he is peeking into the structure...
During my conversation with Ou, he shared his perspective on creating art, saying, "I often consider what I want to achieve as a creator and what I want to experience as a viewer. When these two align, it becomes the core idea of my work." He mentioned how his professional training at art school broadened his creative vision. In particular, during his first year, he volunteered to participate in Yuan Goang Ming’s artwork, To the Black, as a staff member. In the performance, he and other staff members were positioned at the four corners of a black box and instructed through earphones, for instance, pointing at the farthest corners when the lights dimmed or murmuring to themselves as instructed. This experience made him focus on the viewer's experience, stating, "This experience has influenced me to often think about how the audience can experience my work in my work." For Ou, his responsibility as an artist is to manipulate the space in his art to direct the audience's engagement with the work. As for what the audience should experience, Ou leaves the space for the audience to fill in the blank themselves.
Ou’s creative process can be divided into two stages. In the first stage, he focused on “manipulating the space” to create a hidden and intriguing viewing experience for the audience. For example, he created a door with a faint light shining through the cracks, fooling viewers to open the door that cannot be opened. Or use iron sand to replace the warning tape on the floor saying “please do not cross the line,” thereby creating a distinct spatial experience. In the second stage, he focuses on "structuring the rules of the game," trying to figure out how to use the space to attract the audience to engage with the art. In this stage, his focus is not on creating the physical space for audience entry and exit, but on offering several paths for engagement. Ou described this flexibility of choice he provides as a "reserved gap." He said, "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. However, while you're free to make your own choices, there are still some acceptable and not acceptable decisions. Take the exhibition I launched at Yong Fu Art Space last year as example. In this case, I gave the visitor the key to to the door. However, this does not mean they can use tools to remove the entire doors; instead, the flexibility in decisions falls in how you explore the space ‘after’ you came in.”
The piece centered to our discussion, Pilgrims, was created specifically for an artist's book exhibition. Since the exhibition has ended, Ou and I have agreed to provide a scanned file to Wang. For Ou, this work is still in its "performance stage” as being in a digital presence. If you open the art book to the second page, you will see a yellow sticky note—it is the only text explanation for the entire book. It reads, "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." The subsequent pages feature black and white images of the spaces in Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Wherever there is a human figure, it is printed on yellow a sticky note that can be easily torn off. When removed, a white rectangular vacancy is left on the page. After the book fair display, some sticky notes in this book were taken away, while others were swapped with those in other pages. This piece is a work Ou created in the second stage. He stated the "reserved gap" he created for the viewers falls between two areas. First, how they interpret the word "pilgrims". Second, the choice to take away the "audience" from the book or not.
Wang expressed that he was not surprised by Ou's creation, which he called "Ou's way of looking at things." He pointed out that Ou cared more about "form" than "content." Wang shared a story with me, "When we used to walk home together from high school, he would look at the building in front of the school and say to me: 'Don't you think this building looks very flat? Don't you think it lacks dimension?' He would say this suddenly, and I found out how interesting the building is. It looks like a piece of paper." Wang also commented on Ou as a "cunning" creator, saying, "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, they give the impression that Ou has handed you the murder weapon, letting you feel authorized for making decisions.”
"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."
Review
Ou's art