The Emperor's Treasure Chest of the City: Tu Wei-Cheng Solo Exhibition

TAIPEI, July 10, 2012 – The Tina Keng Gallery (Taipei) is pleased to present The Emperor’s Treasure Chest of the City, a solo exhibition by Tu Wei-Cheng (opening reception: July 14, 4:30-7:00pm). The three sections of the exhibition—TheEmperor’s Treasure Chest of the City, Urbanscape and People's Measurement of It, and Image Bank Treasure Hunt—provideapproachesto understanding the “city” and “its residents” by building awareness, making connections, and encouraging excavation, brought about through the techniques of “game,” “body,” and “event.” Drawing from the methods of field study (sampling), the works use a visual-archeological-methodology through intersections of faux artifacts, environmental slices of the city, real events and people, and contemplate the mixed nature of Taiwanese culture, as well as the cultural aspects of other cities.

Theworks in the exhibition document the urban landscape and those within it, while mapping the relationship of Tu’s body and the environment, detailing his travels and the meaning of his encounters. For instance, The Emperor's Treasure Chest(2010-2012), is a record of the “urban images” accumulated from cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Gwangju, Guangzhou, and Taipei. It unites an arcade and a museum by incorporating historical artifacts, including phantascopes, praxinoscopes, shadow theater puppets, magic lanterns, kaleidoscopes, camera obscuras, wooden projectors, grandfather clocks, and Daguerreotype cameras. Throughout its three sections, the exhibition encourages viewers to question their understanding of their bodies and the cities in which they reside.

Tu Wei-Cheng

Tu Wei-Cheng was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (1969), and lives in works in Taoyuan, Taiwan. He holds a BFA from the Chinese Culture University (1993) and an MFA from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts of the Tainan National University of the Arts (2005). He was awarded the 28^thTaipei Arts Prize from the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2001), a grant from the S-An Cultural Foundation (2003), and the Jury’s Special Award of the 2004 Taishin Arts Awards. Most recently, his works have been on view in the solo exhibitions Optical Trickat VT Artsalon, Taipei (2011) and Confucius Dancing Mambo—Tu Wei-Cheng’s Solo Exhibition at Providence University, Taichung (2010). He has also participated in group exhibitions, including Contemporary Appropriations of the Pastat the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan (2012) and Sincere Subversionat VT Artsalon, Taiwan (2012). In September 2012 his work will be included in ROUNDTABLE: 9^thGwangju Biennale 2012in Gwangju, Korea, and The Unseen– The 4^thGuangzhou Triennial in Guangzhou, China.