Organizer: Absolute Space for the Arts
Sponsor: Ministry of Culture (Granted by Cultural Exchanges and Collaborative Projects with Personnel from Southeast Asia)
Sponsor: National Culture and Arts Foundation, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City.
The “Molding island city” Exhibition in Hoi An is Granted by Cultural Exchanges and Collaborative Projects with Personnel from Southeast Asia of Ministry of Culture of Taiwan and is organized by Absolute Space for the Arts in Tainan.
This program has two phases: The first phase was that Artist Bui Cong Khanh has participated the artist residency and exhibition in two months in Tainan with Artist Lin Shu-Kai from April to June 2019. The second phase is that Artist Lin Shu-Kai comes stay in Hoi An for the artist residency and exhibition in one month, then the program is closed by the “Molding island city” exhibition in Hoi An
This residency and exhibition project use molds as the research theme. Through the interviews of mold industry workers, photography records, workshops, art creations and other forms, to understand better the mold culture and the life in Tainan. Those changes and transitions somehow constantly affect the artists on how they present their artworks and highlight the similarities and differences between Taiwan and Vietnam.
About artist Bui Cong Khanh
Born in Da Nang, a city in the central of Vietnam, graduated from the Oil Painting, Ho Chi Minh City of Fine Arts University, and now works and lives in Hoi An City. He founded the GO FISH Studio in 2017. He was invited to participate in the 2016 Singapore Biennale; he has exhibited in Hong Kong, Myanmar, Indonesia, Germany, France and US. Bui Cong Khanh creates a variety of media, graphic painting, digital photography, video, miniature sculpture, space installations. He focuses on the history of the country, society, human condition, etc. Therefore, the materials the artist uses are diverse, he cares more about the particular meaning of the material itself; like wood, metals, porcelain, etc. He specializes in translating the construction and form of the material in order to question about nowadays society and create the feelings about completely different human conditions.
About the artist residency exchange exhibition by Bui Cong Khanh
“This is my second time to cooperate with Artist Lin Shu-Kai whom I really admire. We had enough time to understand each other via our backgrounds, our attentions to history and life, and our creation inspirations. I am very interested in Lin’s background. He grew up in his father’s mold foundry factory. Metal casting is always a very hard job, but that how his father earned living and supported the whole family. Back then, Lin used to play with his father’s molds and started to create a molding city with his own imagination. In addition to his father’s huge influence on Lin’s works, I personally believe that Lin also uses molds as a way of communicating with his father. In other words, he tells his own story in which he is the present and his father is the past.
Compared to Lin’s experience, I realized that I have the similar background like Lin’s. When I was a child, my father often took me to his wood factory. I liked carving the wood and then turned them into my own toys. I and Lin have got that kind of art spirit, creative imagination related to our fathers’ works. I think our art creation is a result of that correspondence.”
About artist Lin Shu-Kai
Born in 1983 in Tainan, Taiwan. Lin graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts, and acquired a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts in 2012. His has exhibited in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Netherlands and US. Lin uses various materials and forms such as painting and objects to construct his imagine spaces and people’s mental states in modern society, he always tries to provide a new perspective to viewers.
** About the artist residency exchange exhibition By Lin Shu-Kai **
It is my second time to cooperate with Vietnamese Artist, Bui Cong Khanh. The first cooperation was five years ago. During that month working together, due to the language barrier, we could only communicate through the body language and paintings to understand each other’s different life experiences. Except the language barrier, the manuscripts written every day actually kept a lot of emotions (e.g. happy, upset, sad and joyful) that could not be communicated in the spoken words. We shared ourselves with each other and re-constructed our new identities. In this sense, this one-month cooperation left a subtle foreshadowing for our future project. Of course, that time we were not sure if we could have another chance to work together. Five years later, both of us have undergone different life experiences. Bui Cong Khanh returned to his hometown of Hoi An, Vietnam. We suddenly discovered that we both were highly interested in the subtlety of city as well as we had something in common that our artist creations were strongly connected to the family memories, Specially the family businesses created by our grandfathers and fathers.
Therefore, the second collaboration project is carried out with the concept of “modeling”, and of course we both definitely continued to share ourselves as a way of cooperating and communicating. In Tainan, since my father’s mold foundry was closed down, we both had used the molds left by my father as the materials for our artistic creation. In particular, those molds were once used and had a glorious past. We had left our hometown for a long time, but in the end, we all came home to look for the family memories. In fact, those that once had gone could not be found forever although they were a part of our life and could not be erased. “Molding” does not simply have a literal meaning but yet it is a replicant that can regenerate life and give a new interpretation for life. In the process of socialization, everyone seems to be homogenized, but each life can regenerate and thrive. This homogeneity also symbolizes the problem faced by many cities in the current of time as well as in the process of transformation. Cities do not simply keep memories. Most important of all, we must reflect on what civilization really means to us and we need to contemplate the past and the present in order to give new values and meanings to the future civilization.
Organizer: Absolute Space for the Arts
Sponsor: Ministry of Culture (Granted by Cultural Exchanges and Collaborative Projects with Personnel from Southeast Asia)
Sponsor: National Culture and Arts Foundation, Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City.
The “Molding island city” Exhibition in Hoi An is Granted by Cultural Exchanges and Collaborative Projects with Personnel from Southeast Asia of Ministry of Culture of Taiwan and is organized by Absolute Space for the Arts in Tainan.
This program has two phases: The first phase was that Artist Bui Cong Khanh has participated the artist residency and exhibition in two months in Tainan with Artist Lin Shu-Kai from April to June 2019. The second phase is that Artist Lin Shu-Kai comes stay in Hoi An for the artist residency and exhibition in one month, then the program is closed by the “Molding island city” exhibition in Hoi An
This residency and exhibition project use molds as the research theme. Through the interviews of mold industry workers, photography records, workshops, art creations and other forms, to understand better the mold culture and the life in Tainan. Those changes and transitions somehow constantly affect the artists on how they present their artworks and highlight the similarities and differences between Taiwan and Vietnam.
About artist Bui Cong Khanh
Born in Da Nang, a city in the central of Vietnam, graduated from the Oil Painting, Ho Chi Minh City of Fine Arts University, and now works and lives in Hoi An City. He founded the GO FISH Studio in 2017. He was invited to participate in the 2016 Singapore Biennale; he has exhibited in Hong Kong, Myanmar, Indonesia, Germany, France and US. Bui Cong Khanh creates a variety of media, graphic painting, digital photography, video, miniature sculpture, space installations. He focuses on the history of the country, society, human condition, etc. Therefore, the materials the artist uses are diverse, he cares more about the particular meaning of the material itself; like wood, metals, porcelain, etc. He specializes in translating the construction and form of the material in order to question about nowadays society and create the feelings about completely different human conditions.
About the artist residency exchange exhibition by Bui Cong Khanh
“This is my second time to cooperate with Artist Lin Shu-Kai whom I really admire. We had enough time to understand each other via our backgrounds, our attentions to history and life, and our creation inspirations. I am very interested in Lin’s background. He grew up in his father’s mold foundry factory. Metal casting is always a very hard job, but that how his father earned living and supported the whole family. Back then, Lin used to play with his father’s molds and started to create a molding city with his own imagination. In addition to his father’s huge influence on Lin’s works, I personally believe that Lin also uses molds as a way of communicating with his father. In other words, he tells his own story in which he is the present and his father is the past.
Compared to Lin’s experience, I realized that I have the similar background like Lin’s. When I was a child, my father often took me to his wood factory. I liked carving the wood and then turned them into my own toys. I and Lin have got that kind of art spirit, creative imagination related to our fathers’ works. I think our art creation is a result of that correspondence.”
About artist Lin Shu-Kai
Born in 1983 in Tainan, Taiwan. Lin graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts, and acquired a master’s degree from the Graduate Institute of Fine Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts in 2012. His has exhibited in Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Netherlands and US. Lin uses various materials and forms such as painting and objects to construct his imagine spaces and people’s mental states in modern society, he always tries to provide a new perspective to viewers.
** About the artist residency exchange exhibition By Lin Shu-Kai **
It is my second time to cooperate with Vietnamese Artist, Bui Cong Khanh. The first cooperation was five years ago. During that month working together, due to the language barrier, we could only communicate through the body language and paintings to understand each other’s different life experiences. Except the language barrier, the manuscripts written every day actually kept a lot of emotions (e.g. happy, upset, sad and joyful) that could not be communicated in the spoken words. We shared ourselves with each other and re-constructed our new identities. In this sense, this one-month cooperation left a subtle foreshadowing for our future project. Of course, that time we were not sure if we could have another chance to work together. Five years later, both of us have undergone different life experiences. Bui Cong Khanh returned to his hometown of Hoi An, Vietnam. We suddenly discovered that we both were highly interested in the subtlety of city as well as we had something in common that our artist creations were strongly connected to the family memories, Specially the family businesses created by our grandfathers and fathers.
Therefore, the second collaboration project is carried out with the concept of “modeling”, and of course we both definitely continued to share ourselves as a way of cooperating and communicating. In Tainan, since my father’s mold foundry was closed down, we both had used the molds left by my father as the materials for our artistic creation. In particular, those molds were once used and had a glorious past. We had left our hometown for a long time, but in the end, we all came home to look for the family memories. In fact, those that once had gone could not be found forever although they were a part of our life and could not be erased. “Molding” does not simply have a literal meaning but yet it is a replicant that can regenerate life and give a new interpretation for life. In the process of socialization, everyone seems to be homogenized, but each life can regenerate and thrive. This homogeneity also symbolizes the problem faced by many cities in the current of time as well as in the process of transformation. Cities do not simply keep memories. Most important of all, we must reflect on what civilization really means to us and we need to contemplate the past and the present in order to give new values and meanings to the future civilization.