在/不在 | Negation of You Artists: Hou I-Ting, Lee Kit, Florence Lam, River Lin Date: 13-20 December, 2019 Address: No. 3, Lane 19, Section 2, Chongqing South Road, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, 100 GALLERY HOURS: Friday (12/13) — 17:00-21:00 Saturday (12/14) — 13:00-19:00 Sunday (12/15) — 13:00-19:00 Monday (12/16) — 16:00-21:00 Tuesday (12/17) — 16:00-21:00 Wednesday (12/18) — 16:00-21:00 Thursday (12/19) — 16:00-21:00 Friday (12/20) — 17:00-21:00 Saturday (12/21) — 14:00-19:00 Sunday (12/22) — 14:00-19:00 In what states have the body and the self existed since the beginning of the 21st century? The contemporary proliferation of digital media, data mining, and biometrics puts the physical body and its presence—and conversely, absence—into question. 在/不在 | Negation of You sets out to critically reflect on the notion of selfhood in an increasingly digital society. This exhibition’s concept engenders interpretations of identity across physical, digital, and metaphysical realms. As we attempt to examine the state of the body, we look to the “self.” How do we negotiate having a physical body, especially when we consider that although the body manifests one’s presence, we continue to exist in its absence? Works presented and performed by HOU I-Ting, Florence LAM, LEE Kit, and River LIN work in concert to create a space for reflecting upon and discussing contemporary manifestations and interpretations of the body, presence, and identity. The exhibition is further supplemented by a program of events, including panel discussions, a Drag Brunch featuring performers Taipei Popcorn and Top Poki, a creative communication workshop led by Ariana Lombardi and Anthony Rowley, and film screenings. Altogether, the works in this exhibition confront and interact with the bounds of the “body” and notions of one’s “identity” by placing the viewer and their physical form at the center of interpretation. In turn, the audience brings with them reflections, questions, and considerations of their bodies in relation to the works and the artists. ------------------------------------------------------------ ABOUT THE ARTISTS HOU I-Ting Born in 1979 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. Digital image making, installation and performance are Hou’s primary mediums. Her works often feature the human body within the changing world. She has deeply explored female labor conditions within the social and economic systems of today and the past. Through her practice, she tries to expand and broaden the discussion of the body. The body within social society and in public indicates and proves itself to be a field of history. She also focuses on transforming onsite sewing performances (the labor process) into a culture action. Her work has been collected by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, White Rabbit Gallery in Australia, Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, and Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts. LEE Kit Born in 1978 in Hong Kong, Lee Kit lives and works in Hong Kong and Taipei. Drawing upon his personal qualities and subtle political dialogues, he combines words, images, paintings, light, and sound to project the inexplicable/metaphysical essence of daily life into the exhibition space. Recent solo exhibitions include: Art Sonje Centre, Seoul, Korea (2019); Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2018); Casa Masaccio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Italy (2018); OCAT, Shenzhen, China (2018); S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium (2016); Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, U.S.A. (2016); Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (2015); and the 55th Venice Biennale, Italy (2013). Group shows include: Lyon Biennial, France (2019), Café do Brazil; Parasite, Hong Kong (2019), Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2017); National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic (2016); Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2015); Ural Industrial Biennial, Yekaterinburg, Russia (2015); Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden Baden, Germany (2014); Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastrich, Netherlands (2014); Hugo Boss Asia Art, Rockbund Museum, Shanghai, China (2013); MoMA, New York, U.S.A. (2012), among others. Source: TKG+ Florence LAM Florence Lam (HK, born 1992 in Vancouver, CA), based in Düsseldorf, works with wonder and magical thinking to fuse together current moral issues with child-like world views. She studied MA Fine Art at Iceland Academy of the Arts, 2017 and BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, 2014. She performed around Europe and Asia, incl. A! Performance Festival (Akureyri, Iceland 2019), ZABIH Performance Festival (Lviv, Ukraine 2019) and “The Artist Disappears”, Cabaret Voltaire, Manifesta 11 (Zürich, Switzerland 2016). River LIN Born in 1984 in Taiwan, River Lin currently lives and works between Paris and Taipei. He is an artist whose work is performance-based in gallery settings. In his work, the artist’s body is usually staged and situated in relation to time, objects, surroundings and the audience engagement, exploring the immaterial labour in exhibition contexts, and transforming viewers’ experiences between arts and everyday life. His work has been presented by institutions as well as artist-run festivals, including the Palais de Tokyo and Centre National de la Danse in Paris, the KANAL Centre Pompidou and KAAI Theatre in Brussels, the Manifesta 11 in Zurich, Month of Performance Art Berlin, Draw to Perform and Tempting Failure in London, ANTI Contemporary Art Festival in Kuopio, the M+ Museum in Hong Kong, the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, the 2016 Taipei Biennial and Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and the Liveworks Festival in Sydney among others. ------------------------------------------------------------ 在/不在 | Negation of You is curated by STAFF. STAFF is an international curatorial team of five women who are all pursuing Master's degrees in Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art at National Taipei University of Education in Taiwan. STAFF is comprised of Shormi Ahmed, Tatiana Syromiatnikova, Ariana Lombardi, Zilin (Franky) Gong, and E-fahn (Fawn) Wang. ------------------------------------------------------------ Special thanks to LU Peiyi, CCSCA, National Taipei University of Education, The Floating Cinema, TheStudio, 竹圍工作室 Bamboo Curtain Studio, and Lili Art & Kitchen.