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New York Solo Exhibition jing-atmospheres listed as Editors’ Picks by Artnet
紐約個展《境》被Artnet列為編輯精選藝術活動

2021-12-17 author

Wu Chi-Tsung’s solo exhibition jing-atmospheres was listed in the Editor’s Pick by Artnet News. Each week, the website search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. Here are editor Sarah Cascone’s introduction to the exhibition: In his first show at Sean Kelly, Wu Chi-Tsung presents his “Cyano-Collage” series, which reinterprets he traditional ink and brush landscapes of Chinese shan shui paintings—which translates to “mountain-water-pictures”—through the lens of experimental photography. The artist crumples up cyanotype paper that has a photosensitive coating, exposes it to sunlight, and mounts it on aluminum to create collaged images that recall mountainous landscapes. 在Artnet於11月2日發表的「本週最佳展覽」推薦版塊中，個展《境》亦被評價為最「激動人心、引人深思」的展覽。網站編輯Sarah Cascone的推薦詞如下：「在吳季璁於尚凱利畫廊的首秀中，他展示了其《氰山集》系列作品，這一系列通過實驗影像重新詮釋了中國傳統繪畫中使用水墨演繹的山水意象。藝術家將塗佈藥劑的氰版宣紙揉皺、在陽光下曝曬、並將之拼貼至鋁板上，形成令人聯想至山水的圖像。」

Ocula Magazine: Wu Chi-Tsung’s Xuan paper collages open up many visual possibilities
Ocula展評：吳季璁之「境」

2021-12-17 author

For his first solo exhibition in the United States at Sean Kelly in New York (jing-atmospheres, 5 November–18 December 2021), Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung reimagines traditional Chinese landscape painting through film, installation, and photography. Within this stunning, formally innovative body of works, his ‘Cyano-Collage’ series (2021) utilises Xuan paper treated with photosensitive coating and hung outside to expose them to sunlight. After developing the papers under liquid, the artist combines and mounts them on aluminium. Each work in the series contains multiple pieces of Xuan paper, seamlessly collaged into unified compositions with no discernable boundaries. Cyano-Collage 120, for example, resembles a monumental painting of the ocean with thunderous, cerulean waves. These five ‘Cyano-Collage’ works range in size, though the largest ones span entire walls. (The artist built a vast studio to produce this series.) To complete their surfaces, Chi-Tsung applies white acrylic as a mist, which lends a sense of depth to the landscapes. Sometimes this spectral white acrylic resembles an intense energy surge. The beauty of these cyanotype collages is that they are both hyper-realistic and indeterminable, resisting any fixed reading. ‘They could be anything, because they are not representing any real landscape’, the artist has explained. ‘This is the spirit of a Chinese landscape.’ The ‘Cyano-Collage’ works are based on Chinese shan shui paintings, which literally translates to ‘mountain-water-pictures’. And like shan shui, which do not follow Western linear perspective, the ‘Cyano-Collage’ works encourage mobile viewing, inviting the eye to move around the work and construct the image in the process. Formally trained in Chinese calligraphy and ink art, Chi-Tsung explores the essence of Chinese landscape painting and what it might offer the viewer. In 2012, he turned to photography to do this. Unsatisfied with the medium’s contemporary formats, Chi-Tsung turned to cyanotype—a method that has been used since the mid-1800s.Various artists, most notably Robert Rauschenberg early in his career, have experimented with the cyanotype process. Drawn to its use of light rather than the dark room, the sun is as important a material to Chi-Tsung as Xuan paper. Developing the images by exposing them to sunlight, cyanotype offers Chi-Tsung a time- and chance-based process,…

Frieze: Wu Chi-Tsung Reinvents Tradition
Frieze專文《吳季璁重新定義傳統》

2021-12-16 author

‘I started to do Cyanotypes simply because I am not satisfied with photography nowadays’ explains artist Wu Chi-Tsung in this video, filmed in his studio in Taipei, Taiwan. A technique drawn from the early era of photography, Wu executes his Cyanotypes by applying chemicals to Xuan paper, which is crumpled by hand and exposed to sunlight on the roof of his studio; the artist then arranges the glacial forms that emerge onto aluminium mounts. The resultant ‘Cyano-Collages’ recalling the landscapes of the traditional shan shuior ‘mountain water’ tradition. ‘It’s really similar to how ink painters do Chinese landscapes,’ says Chi-Tsung, ‘they are building up, creating the worlds they want to project themselves inside.’ Trained in the traditional idioms of calligraphy and brush and ink Chi-Tsung’s commitment to innovative use of new and historic media and technology has seen him engage photography, projection, installation and moving image in works such as Dust (2006) and Wire VI (2021). Despite this diversity, his practice is united by an abiding, almost spiritual concern with process, perception and vision. ‘I’m helping material to find its own being ’ Chi-Tsung explains, ‘at the same time I open up myself’. ‘Wu Chi-Tsung: jing atmospheres’ is on view at Sean Kelly, New York from 5 November to 18 December 2021. 在吳季璁首次亮相倫敦弗里茲藝術博覽會之際，藝博會在尚凱利畫廊的協製下前往他在台北的工作室進行採訪與拍攝，製作了名為的《吳季璁：重新定義傳統》影片，並在官方網站中發表專文，介紹吳季璁重審傳統、尊重材料的創作哲學。文中，吳季璁分享道，「《氰山集》的誕生來自於我對於當下的攝影的不滿足」，並介紹「其內核與水墨畫很像。我們都是建立起一個令自己能夠適意棲居世界。」

Still Life Series showcased in the group exhibition INK Dreams at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
《小品系列》參展洛杉磯郡藝術博物館群展《Ink Dreams》

2021-12-14 author

Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree was recently donated to Los Angeles County Museum of Art by Ink Foundation and was showcased in the group exhibition INK Dreams of the museum. The exhibition featured works from the ink collection of French collectors and philanthropists Gerard Cognie and Dora Cognie, who have lived in Switzerland for nearly 20 years. In the name of the Ink Foundation, the couple have generously donated nearly 400 works to LACMA, a vast collection of ink-related artworks that will shift the direction of the research on contemporary Chinese art at the museum. The Ink Foundation’s research is not limited to Chinese art, but focuses on the spirit of ink painting, and includes international contemporary artworks into it. Artists in this collection includes Chinese artists Bing Yi, Gu Wenda, Li Huasheng, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Dan, Liu Guosong, Xu Bing, and Zheng Chongbin, as well as Japanese, Korean, and international artists such as Park Seo-Bo, Lee U-fan, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, Osamu Suzuki, Kitamura Junko, Idris Khan, Shirazeh Houshiary, Ophelie Asch, Irma Blank, and many others. The works in the collection range from calligraphy to ink paintings, sculpture, prints, and installation works, and Wu Chi-Tsung’s Still Life Series is the only video installation in the collection. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with seven galleries and a collection of more than 135,000 objects covering modern and contemporary art, ancient art, American art, Asian art, European art, and more. The Museum is committed to drawing inspiration from the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse populations, and to sharing a diverse and global-minded art history. 《小品之十二彎子木》則是由來自瑞士的Ink Foundation捐獻給洛杉磯郡藝術博物館（LACMA），並於群展《INK Dreams》中展出。《INK Dreams》展覽呈現居於瑞士的法國收藏家與慈善家Gerard Cognie 和Dora Cognie近20年來的水墨藏品。The Cognies以Ink Foundation為名，慷慨捐贈了近400件作品給予LACMA，這批大量的水墨藏品將會改變美術館的當代中國藝術研究方向。Ink Foundation的關注不局限於中國，而是以水墨精神為主，將國際當代的藝術品都納入典藏範疇，收藏藝術家作品包括華人藝術家冰逸、古文達、李華生、林天苗、劉丹、劉國松、徐冰、鄭重賓，日韓與國際藝術家包括朴栖甫（Park Seo-Bo）、李禹煥、杉本博司、鈴木藏、Kitamura Junko、Idris Khan、Shirazeh Houshiary、Ophelie Asch、Irma Blank等。典藏作品自書法到紙本水墨、雕塑、版畫、裝置作品皆有涉獵，而吳季璁的《小品》是唯一一件錄像藏品。洛杉磯郡藝術博物館是美國西部最大的藝術博物館，共有7座展館，收藏逾13.5萬件藏品，涵蓋現當代藝術、古代藝術、美洲藝術、亞洲藝術、歐洲藝術等。美術館致力於從該地區豐富的文化遺產和多樣化的人口中汲取靈感、分享多元而全球化的藝術史。

Two Still Life Series ACQUIRED BY Santa Barbara Museum of Art
美國聖塔巴巴拉美術館典藏兩件《小品系列》作品

2021-12-14 author

Two of Wu Chi-Tsung’s video works, Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree and Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower, were acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The works are now exhibited in the group exhibition Mediated Nature. Located in California, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) was established in 1941, and its building was formerly a post office in the downtown. As a small to medium-sized local museum, the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Arts is exquisite and delicate, with a high span of works collected across ancient and modern Europe and Asia, including early Greek and Roman artifacts, Asian art and antiquities from China, Japan and Korea, 19th and 20th century European and American paintings, and international contemporary art. For each collection focus, more than one curator in the museum is responsible for its exhibition and acquisitions plans. It is worth mentioning that the Museum’s Photography and New Media Art is an independent department, currently led by curator Charlie Wylie, and the acquisition of the Still Life Series was carried out by this department. The Museum also has a strong connection to the local community. Many art lovers enthusiastically volunteer to be docents during their leisure time. In addition to private donations as a source of funding, the museum also relies on generous donations from the public, making the museum a place where memories and histories are shared with local residents. The exhibition will run through Dec 1, 2022. 吳季璁的兩件錄像作品《小品之十二彎子木》和《小品之十四黃梅》被美國聖塔巴巴拉美術館收藏，並於美術館群展《媒介化的自然》中展出。位於加州的聖塔巴巴拉美術館（SBMA）成立於1941年，其建築物前身為市中心的郵局，後來透過私人捐助等預算不斷擴建館舍，近期才完成耗時七年的裝修改建。身為中小型的地方博物館，聖塔芭芭拉美術館的藏品精緻細膩，作品收藏跨度極高，橫跨古今歐亞，囊括早期希臘和羅馬文物、亞洲中日韓三地藝術和古物、19和20世紀的歐美繪畫，國際當代藝術，每個收藏重點皆由一位以上館內策展人負責作品展出與購藏的規劃。值得一提的是館內「攝影與新媒體藝術」是獨立出來的部門，目前由策展人Charlie Wylie主導，《小品系列》作品正是由這一部門購藏。美術館與地方社群的連結極深，許多藝文愛好者會在閒暇之餘熱心參與館內導覽活動。另外，除了以私人捐贈作為經費來源，館內眾多藏品也仰賴民間捐獻，使美術館成為與在地居民共譜記憶的場域。展覽將持續至2022年12月1日。