MUTE
A Solo Exhibition by Huang Wen-Hao


22 August ~ 19 September, 2009
Opening Reception: 7:00pm, Sat., 22 August 2009
http://www.itpark.com.tw/exhibition/data/265

Artist Statement

It has been 13 years since my last solo exhibition at IT Park. During this period, my life journey experienced numerous transitions. Two major illnesses profoundly affected my life. The threat of death has inspired my creative concept to become more vigorous and powerful. During my recuperation, I was inundated with boredom and kept busy reading or surfing the Internet. The vast array of visual stimuli altered the way I perceived the world. The majority of my recent creations are centered on the philosophy brought about by my new lifestyle and this is what I have chosen for this exhibition.

I made use of large quantities of low resolution or poor quality images as my creative elements. In one of my creations, I assembled an image by stacking 100 photos obtained from the Internet; with each photo processed to 1% transparency. In addition, I also tried stacking 100 Internet pornographic videos to form intriguing sounds and imagery. For the other creations I chose the antiquated image format, GIF as my main visual representation. I deliberately chose the antiquated GIF format for my image presentation. Although GIF format has only 8-bit color, the image quality is mediocre and limited in size. Nevertheless, I enjoyed using GIF instead of high resolution formats because of its ability to insert multiple pictures and cycle them repeatedly for an animated effect. The image is no longer instantaneous and frozen; it is eternally bifurcated and continually repetitive. The senses are thus strengthened through accumulation, numbed through exhaustion, twisted or precipitated…

The virtual world’s misplacement of time and space, silently alters life; and shines like the perpetual days of the tropics where everything becomes silent and still.


Ps. “The perpetual days”: Collaboration work by Dennis Liu and Huang Wen-Hao