Two-Sided Book - Hsin-wen Hsu









Two-Sided Book

Hsin-wen Hsu


Exhibit Duration：
Feb 18 - Mar 26, 2017  

Opening Reception：
Feb 18, 2017  15:00

Opening Tour：
Feb 18, 2017  15:30


Two-Sided Book_02.jpg


Each page of the book is a combination of two-halves, can show anything within your wish list, while the gap between the pages, represents the cracks of seeds, during their splitting, the small universe will be born.


Hsin-wen Hsu, who has worked in the media and publishing industry for many years. Since returning to school in order to practice her dreams, she has entered the field of mixed media, jumping off the frame from graphic design, instead of a series of devices, sculpture or video and other multi-media creation, her theme is focused on reflecting the current social status and education system. In addition to the visual shock and agitation, the viewer will self-experience association and resonance, her works are in contact with people's deep memories, thus viewers can read her art vocabularies with different angles and points of views.


Pencils, blank notebooks, desks and chairs, wood and other items are often used by Hsin-wen Hsu, she mix and match different media, each object is perfect and incomplete, and set or blend, are like a virtual situation, showing different stories. She believes that "objects become metaphorical symbols, structured to be able to communicate in a language that is different from the reproduction of the painting and the removal of the substance of the object, in order to embellish the mix and match, to watch, think, summon the memories and attitudes in between people and things.


This solo exhibition of "Two-Sided Book" at Powen Gallery, Hsin-wen Hsu uses the rich pure life elements of papers as main axis, compared with the paper back to the relationship between the seeds, books and spirit of blank notebooks. After cutting and reorganizing those thin papers, the cascading life forms their own composition, resulting in dialogue, while through the "learning" concept, she guides and provokes the viewer's experience memories, to induce more wild imaginations from them.


Different from the general life experience of the artist, Hsin-wen Hsu is known for her extremely delicate, gentle expression of the construction of the context, not only as a mother for the education environment concerns, but also a social observer to the public questions. Her unique artworks being collected by the Art Bank of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, also receiving the exhibition subsidy of the Taipei Culture Bureau. She has won "The 13th Taoyuan Award of Art Creation", "2013 The New Creative Talent Award of New Taipei City", also selected award of "Imaged Scenery II - Immortal Pursuit, The Invitation Exhibition of New Media for International Students".



Regarding Seeds


In the art dimension of math, if two halves meet, will they be greater than 1?


Each object is like a seed, and the knife, which divides objects in two, like the knife that is sealed to the canvas, allowing the object to be regenerated, changing the original awareness, and rethinking entirely about the object itself. In the cracks, the individual becomes plural, obtaining nutrients to expand and integrate. Through this change, it allows objects to produce endless dialogue, finally gaining life. Sprouting in fantasy, breathing and growing in the inner world of the creator, forming shape in the viewer's imagination.

On my path of creation, I have been searching for a seed that is native and that I can call my own. To learn the concept as my main axis, something as simple as "paper" contains so many elements of life, from paper – plant – root – and back to the relationship between the seeds, such a systematic restoration process, returning to the plain memories and the most pure origin. If the storyteller is the full knowledge navigator, than the empty book is like the origin of the life of the vast universe.

Removing the cover of an empty book shows a completely new blank vector. When opening each page, like opening a crack of a seed, putting it into the body of an infinite space, there are new concepts and readings formed that may constitute a whole new world. It is a kind of "object" schizophrenia, originating from the same person, but after splitting becomes “them” or “me”, and unknowingly becomes “us.” The concept of this work, originates from splitting and then afterwards re-combination.


It is interesting to imagine the possibility of mathematics involved in the arts. For the majority of artist’s sketch, addition is applied, adding the patterns and annotations, filling up an empty notebook. However, this work is subtraction, attempting to maintain the original emptiness and white through numerous cuttings, yet through the re-combination, letting the object return to the addition concept as well.


Cutting, is like the exploration of a file, digging deep into the layers of intertwined notes. It’s a sketch, but also a figure; it’s a space, but also a story, more like a surface mirror, fabricating ordinary events, shouting toward the inner world, allowing seeds to bud.


A cut of the knife is not a new creation, it is only to find that greater than 1 possibility, and to leave space to imagine for the viewer.



Statement by Hsin-wen Hsu