Double Square 双方藝廊

In the midnight black, our wanders commence, with no beginning nor end, as each moment is the start and every moment the end. – Chen Wan-Jen

Double Square Gallery is proud to present Midnight Black—Chen Wan-Jen Solo Exhibition, which runs from December 7, 2019 to January 11, 2020. Since his last solo exhibition at Double Square Gallery two years ago, the artist now returns to the gallery with a brand new large-scale installation after his work in 2017, The Still Point of the Turning World. In this new exhibition, Chen presents the installation, Midnight Black, based on which the exhibition is named. It features a group of swimming video installations that combine mechanical motors and Samsung’s flagship water-resistant smartphones. As the phone screens play looped videos of swimming figures, the swimmers seem to be leisurely moving in the sea of time that has no beginning nor end. The faint lights from the screens in the tranquil, deep water are like lights on fishing boats floating on a vast, dark sea. Utilizing the motors’ physical movements and the swimmers’ virtual images, the artist creates an alternative space in between reality and virtuality, whereas the integration of display technology and video content reveals a new visual experience subverting existing conceptions.

The artist is known for using video and installation to capture repetitive blank fragments in life, employing the technique of image collage to repeatedly cut out, polish and combine each frame of image to create digital images that visualize the codified, flattened body in digital technology. Throughout the creation of the work, the artist has kept visiting the same location to take photos at different hours. After a while, the people under the camera lens started behaving in a repetitive pattern rather than a random one. The photographer and the photographed people have therefore become like old acquaintances, and their encounters embody the relationship between individuals as well as between people and the world. Viewing Chen’s work, viewers will see the same people showing up repeatedly while carrying out the same action. However, after watching these ordinary characters doing their seemingly futile activity for a few seconds, a resonating connection is formed between the viewers and the characters, producing an alternative sense of time unlike that of the everyday reality.

From December 2019 on, Double Square Gallery and Samsung will collaborate a one-year exhibition project, entitled “Light Year Program,” which takes the gallery’s second-floor space and transforms it into a creative site for artistic experimentation and video-related exhibitions. Samsung will provide exhibiting artists with the brand’s display equipment, including smartphones, tablets and flat screens. Midnight Black—Chen Wan-Jen Solo Exhibition is the first exhibition that launches this collaboration, and Samsung’s flagship smartphone is the perfect vehicle for the artist’s video work, Midnight Black, which immerses the audience in an unprecedented visual experience.