Double Square 双方藝廊

The Double Square Gallery is pleased to host the exhibition of Lost in Interstellar Space: RED scheduled to be on view from 22 April to 28 May 2017 with an opening reception at 15:00 on 22 April. This exhibition features the third collaborative series by the art group Xindian Boys, and marks the debut of this art series in Taipei. We cordially invite you to the interstellar space where political metaphors, abstract symbols and desolate wilderness are interlaced with one another.
In 1985, the famous minimalist sculpture “Finite to Infinite” was accused of alluding symbol containing "Red Star". In the context of "fear of ideological problems", artist Lee Tsai-Chien was forced to repaint his work to other colors. This was caused a lot of controversies at that time. After a series of color replacement several times, “Finite to Infinite” has eventually rehabilitated and restored until now. “Lost in Interstellar Space” is presented to this mystery of Taiwan art history as a starting point which is a retro Sci-fi movie, and been molded by the conception “metaphysical exile” of the Soviet science fiction art film “Solaris”, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Through the space narrative, it reflects the absurdity and nihility of human beings. “Lost in Interstellar Space” scenes are taken from Xindian Creek after a typhoon disaster in 2015, at such changed terrain and barren dry riverbed, Xindian Boys elaborate this abstract art involves political issues aforementioned with their unique image style in order to introduce us into their Sci-fi journey.
Lost in Interstellar Space: RED consists of four pieces of work. The first is the section (or re-assemblage) of the famous minimalist sculpture Finite to Infinite which serves as the lead-in of this series. The second is a set of black-and-white photographs that lay out the thematic scene. The third is a spacious room with a three-channel video installation that perfectly blends itself with the previous two parts. Amidst the black-and-white images, the visitors roam an empty desert in the company of an astronaut/an artist/the last man who has fallen on evil days, as if they are sent into exile together. All the scenes in this video were filmed on the bank of Xindian Creek. However, a typhoon wreaked havoc to the topography in 2015 insofar as to render the local residents feel deeply estranged from the scenes and ergo find them barely recognizable. Thus, their hometown is turned into outer space, and their hearth and home into a strange place. Shifting their gaze away from the video projection, the visitors may see a sculpture made of dead wood-like or meteorite-shaped pieces of scrap metal collected from the midstream of Xindian Creek. These pieces of metal are the fragments of the architecture damaged by the typhoon. After thoroughly cleansing their surfaces, the art group installed these pieces of metal on the flaming red walls in an auditorium-like space, insinuating the original color of the sculpture Finite to Infinite which was a taboo to the government at that time. Xindian Boys is a teamwork-oriented art group comprised of four artists par excellence, namely TSONG Pu, WU Tung-Lung, CHEN Shun-Chu, and SU Hui-Yu. They transcend disciplinary confines and adopt different kinds of creative media such as painting, photography, installation and video. Their collaborative artworks tend to be infused with their living experiences and the humanistic background of the mountainous area of Xindian, therefore bearing more than a passing resemblance to an alternative topography survey. Their first collaborative series The Determination of Life (2012) investigated the possibilities of a secluded life in the forest and the contemporary life from the perspective of oriental philosophy. Their three-channel video installation 0343 (2015) developed a counterpoint-based Weltanschauung on life and death, mankind and nature, as well as civilization and energy. CHEN Shun-Chu departed for heaven in this period, and it was not until one and a half years later that the other three members finished their third art series Lost in Interstellar Space: RED (2016) which addresses the issue concerning the relational trinities of artist/individual/life and society/world/universe, echoing the artistic, political and spiritual exile with images.