Su Hui-Yu, a globally known Taiwanese artist, is recognized by his avantgarde artwork as well as bold and experimental artistic style. With the support from the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan this year, Su was selected as a residential artist at 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles from July to September. Noticeably, 18th Street Arts Center will showcase Su’s selected artworks at Atrium Gallery on September 14th the Open Studio Day. Everyone is welcome to join us.
For all selected artworks from Su, which include an ongoing project “A Future from the Past,” and his past works such as “Future Shock,” “The Glamorous Boys of Tang,” “The Walker,” and “L'être et le néantet (1962, Chang Chao-Tang),” etc. will all be showcased until September 27th at 18th Street Arts Center. Su’s studio will stay open from 5 to 8 pm on September 14, and the artist will be present for conversation and exchanges with audience.
Su Hui-Yu is fascinated by the intricate tapestry interwoven with images, media, history, and daily life. He uses video recording to explore how mass media affect audiences, and he projects people’s thoughts and desire of media. During these years, Su adds on elements from ancient books and novels of anecdotes to his artworks. He rereads, revises and reassembles those books and novels from the past generations, then he reacquaints the definition of physicality, existence, and history. Su’s work has been showcased and exhibited globally at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, MOCA Taipei, San Jose Museum of Art, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Luxembourg City Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam etc.
For those artworks presented at 18th Street Arts Center, “Future Shock” will take you back to Kaohsiung city of the 70s when the city was developing industrial facilities and modernist architecture. It will remind our unfamiliar memories to the “future from the past” golden days; “The Glamorous Boys of Tang” presents Su’s supplementary explanation and homage to the same name movie which was directed by Chui Kang-Chien in 1985; “L'être et le néantet (1962, Chang Chao-Tang)” expresses Su’s restructuring the same name work from photographer Chang Chao-Tang in the year of 1962 when Taiwan was suffered from the depression, fear, and imprisonment during the period of martial law and White Terror era; “The Walker” has been selected to be screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam. By dismantling Taiwanese non-mainstream theater groups’ plays and techniques, Su re-interprets the velocity, prime-time, rebellion, physical pleasure and ethical minefield, and he presents an alternatively cultural imagery of 1990s in Taiwan.
18th Street Arts Center was founded in 1988. It’s one of the well-established arts centers along with its history in Southern California. They encourage artists to participate and join the community, and they hope to influence the society positively through art. They have been serving more than 500 international artists from sixty different countries. With the long-term cooperation with the arts center, the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan selects two Taiwanese artists every year and sends them to Los Angeles for artistic residency.