Shimmers in the Drawer
A solo exhibition by Liang-Pin Tsao
Venue: Chinese American Arts Council | Gallery 456
Address: 456 Broadway, 3 rd Floor. New York, NY 10013
Opening reception: May 8 th , Thursday, 6-8 PM
Exhibition date: May 8 th – May 29 th , 2014
Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, 12-5 PM
Website: http://www.caacarts.org
Statement
The exhibition title, Shimmers in the Drawer, is by and large an euphemistic
metaphor. The word “shimmers” alludes to the departed and bygones, while “drawer”
refers to one’s mind. It is essentially about people and events that had left long-lasting
imprints in one’s life. Despite separation or the passage of time, the memories and
things they left behind still intertwine subtly with the lives of the keepers, revealing
their close connection in the past as well as the disconnection at present.
Open the drawer, and look back at the items and memories scattered inside. What do
we do with the things that were once endowed with intimate feelings after breaking
up? How do we settle down the memories that were displaced in reality when worlds
apart? In terms of form, this exhibition is perhaps comparable to a lost-and-found.
Moreover, while waiting the lost items to be reclaimed by their owners, it also aims to
evoke the diasporic memories.
Apart from the passive wait-and-see and wishful evocation, S.K., the video work to be
shown in the exhibition, attempts proactively to reunite the deceased with the living
through actual practice of commemoration, hoping to embody the positive meanings
of the unity between the heavenly and human or in Coleridge’s words, the one life
within us and abroad; simultaneously preventing from indulging in acute nostalgia.
The people and events involved in the exhibition are trivial. Besides, it seems to be
behind the times to look back on the past, especially considering the current
development of materialism that almost always centers around the new. But perhaps it
is precisely a case in point to illustrate reversely the lack of humaneness in our pursuit
of material growth and the imbalance in the relations of mind and matter.
This exhibition tries to explore the meanings and values of our sentience and mind in
modern life, reflecting on the relations between self and other as well as mind and
matter that seems to be vulnerably close and deceptively alienated in today’s world.
The exhibition is supported by Pak-Hing Kan Arts Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan (R.O.C.).
“CAAC | Gallery 456 Visual Arts Exhibition Series” is supported, in part, by public funds from the New
York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. This program is also made
possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the
New York State Legislature.
