SNAILS (NOT INCLUDED)
Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei
7.21 – 9.8, 2019
'Like a Urinal in a Nightclub'
You came and went. Here I was, taking in your silence and your chatter. Names were exchanged, titles never mentioned again. I thought about what you just consumed and what you were letting out, some golden liquid turning into another. You were like a filter, matters passed through you and became a part of you. I am but an ingredient interpreter, your secrets are safe with me. It would just be like confiding to a treehole – we all know that treeholes stay silent.
- Note on the wall in a restroom of a Taipei nightclub
Luo Jr-Shin’s solo exhibition Snails (Not Included) (2019) at Michael Ku Gallery features a series of sculptures, objects, drawings, mechanized devices, and site-specific installations. The exhibition centers around the ways in which objects and materials transform meanings and become vehicles for narratives themselves. Tying all gallery rooms together is a floor installation titled Water, Malt, Hops, Rice, Yeast. The title plays an important role of indicating both the material makeup and the implied referent of the piece. Having studied the beer brewing process, the artist coats the gallery floor with a liquid produced from ground, cooked, and saccharified ingredients found in real beer (as indicated in the title). The result is a sticky surface and an extended bodily experience associated with stepping on a beer-covered floor. The liquid itself is not real beer, however, but as the exhibition statement suggests, it is slowly turning into beer “conceptually.” In other words, the idea of beer merely exists in the audience’s imagination. The coated floor acts as a vehicle through which visitors can access their own memories and spatial encounters associated with the gooey sensation, connecting perception with imagination.
Preceding Snails (Not Included) are projects Like a Urinal in a Nightclub (Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taipei) and From Some Golden Liquid Turning into Another (MMCA Goyang Art Studio, Seoul; Vernacular Institute, Mexico City). These two projects assume the setting of a nightclub restroom, an intermediary space collapsing the public and the private. In here, people, substances, and messages flow. Water runs and some golden liquid turns into another golden liquid in sinks and urinals, common facilities that are treated as “indicators” in the artist’s work. Graffiti and messages are seen on mirrors, walls, and doors. Individuals transform physically and mentally in this iconic space that harbors multiple functionalities, demonstrating how materials, situations, and even psychological conditions can shift from one state to another.
Press Release:
Floor Plan:
Recording of walking on "Water, Malt, Hop, Rice, Yeast"
@/" @/" @/" @/"
《不存在的蝸牛》
谷公館，台北
7.21 – 9.8.2019
《像是一個夜店的小便斗》
你匆匆來去，我蹲在那，聽你們沈默或交談，自陶或社交，相互介紹過名字，今後便不再往來。我分析著你吃了與喝了什麼，從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體，你像是顆濾心，物質穿越過你便成為你的一部份，而我負責解讀成分，你的秘密和我一起很安全，像是對一個樹洞講話一樣，大家都知道樹洞是不說話的啊。
──台北某間夜店廁所牆上的留言
《不存在的蝸牛》是2019年羅智信在谷公館的個展。其中展出包括裝置、雕塑、物件、繪畫、動力裝置和限地觀念裝置。環繞整個展覽的共通主題是關於物質、物件和材料如何轉換與乘載意義的。貫穿畫廊主要空間的是一件黏膩的地板作品，其標題是《水、麥芽、啤酒花、米、酵母》，這個標題扮演了一個很重要的角色，因為它同時點明了這件作品的內容成分和所指涉的對象。藝術家學習了釀造啤酒的程序與技巧，以和啤酒一模一樣的成分（如標題）經研磨、熬煮、糖化後製作成溶液，再將之塗抹在地上。雖然這黏膩的觸感、空間氛圍或是標題的暗示都讓觀眾聯想到這些就是「啤酒灑在地上」的空間和身體經驗，但其實它們並不是啤酒，頂多會像是展覽介紹文中所寫的：「就觀念的層面上來說，它們正在變成啤酒」，而事實上，這個概念中「啤酒」只發生在觀眾的想像之中，黏性的地板作為一個觸發器，瞬間將觀者帶回各自的經驗、記憶中的空間與身體知覺，進而能夠完成這個想像的迴圈。
在前身計畫《像是一個夜店的小便斗》（台北當代藝術中心，台北）、《從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體》（MMCA高陽工作室，首爾、Vernacular Institute，墨西哥市）到《不存在的蝸牛》中，作品中的空間設定始終是在一個夜店的廁所裡。為什麼在廁所裡，除了這裡是公共與私人的模糊交界處之外，人來來去去，也暗示物質、訊息在這裡被交換。不停流動的水與被藝術家譬喻為指示器(indicator)的水槽或是小便斗——「從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體」，鏡子、牆面與門板上的塗鴉與留言，也很多人在此變身——不管是物質的或是精神面上的。藝術家選取這個極具有代表性與多重性格的空間以點出物質、情境甚至是人的心理狀態如何在不同介面中穿梭。
新聞稿：
空間配置：
走在《水、麥芽、啤酒花、米、酵母》的錄音
Michael Ku Gallery, Taipei
7.21 – 9.8, 2019
'Like a Urinal in a Nightclub'
You came and went. Here I was, taking in your silence and your chatter. Names were exchanged, titles never mentioned again. I thought about what you just consumed and what you were letting out, some golden liquid turning into another. You were like a filter, matters passed through you and became a part of you. I am but an ingredient interpreter, your secrets are safe with me. It would just be like confiding to a treehole – we all know that treeholes stay silent.
- Note on the wall in a restroom of a Taipei nightclub
Luo Jr-Shin’s solo exhibition Snails (Not Included) (2019) at Michael Ku Gallery features a series of sculptures, objects, drawings, mechanized devices, and site-specific installations. The exhibition centers around the ways in which objects and materials transform meanings and become vehicles for narratives themselves. Tying all gallery rooms together is a floor installation titled Water, Malt, Hops, Rice, Yeast. The title plays an important role of indicating both the material makeup and the implied referent of the piece. Having studied the beer brewing process, the artist coats the gallery floor with a liquid produced from ground, cooked, and saccharified ingredients found in real beer (as indicated in the title). The result is a sticky surface and an extended bodily experience associated with stepping on a beer-covered floor. The liquid itself is not real beer, however, but as the exhibition statement suggests, it is slowly turning into beer “conceptually.” In other words, the idea of beer merely exists in the audience’s imagination. The coated floor acts as a vehicle through which visitors can access their own memories and spatial encounters associated with the gooey sensation, connecting perception with imagination.
Preceding Snails (Not Included) are projects Like a Urinal in a Nightclub (Taipei Contemporary Art Center, Taipei) and From Some Golden Liquid Turning into Another (MMCA Goyang Art Studio, Seoul; Vernacular Institute, Mexico City). These two projects assume the setting of a nightclub restroom, an intermediary space collapsing the public and the private. In here, people, substances, and messages flow. Water runs and some golden liquid turns into another golden liquid in sinks and urinals, common facilities that are treated as “indicators” in the artist’s work. Graffiti and messages are seen on mirrors, walls, and doors. Individuals transform physically and mentally in this iconic space that harbors multiple functionalities, demonstrating how materials, situations, and even psychological conditions can shift from one state to another.
Press Release:
Floor Plan:
Recording of walking on "Water, Malt, Hop, Rice, Yeast"
@/" @/" @/" @/"
《不存在的蝸牛》
谷公館，台北
7.21 – 9.8.2019
《像是一個夜店的小便斗》
你匆匆來去，我蹲在那，聽你們沈默或交談，自陶或社交，相互介紹過名字，今後便不再往來。我分析著你吃了與喝了什麼，從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體，你像是顆濾心，物質穿越過你便成為你的一部份，而我負責解讀成分，你的秘密和我一起很安全，像是對一個樹洞講話一樣，大家都知道樹洞是不說話的啊。
──台北某間夜店廁所牆上的留言
《不存在的蝸牛》是2019年羅智信在谷公館的個展。其中展出包括裝置、雕塑、物件、繪畫、動力裝置和限地觀念裝置。環繞整個展覽的共通主題是關於物質、物件和材料如何轉換與乘載意義的。貫穿畫廊主要空間的是一件黏膩的地板作品，其標題是《水、麥芽、啤酒花、米、酵母》，這個標題扮演了一個很重要的角色，因為它同時點明了這件作品的內容成分和所指涉的對象。藝術家學習了釀造啤酒的程序與技巧，以和啤酒一模一樣的成分（如標題）經研磨、熬煮、糖化後製作成溶液，再將之塗抹在地上。雖然這黏膩的觸感、空間氛圍或是標題的暗示都讓觀眾聯想到這些就是「啤酒灑在地上」的空間和身體經驗，但其實它們並不是啤酒，頂多會像是展覽介紹文中所寫的：「就觀念的層面上來說，它們正在變成啤酒」，而事實上，這個概念中「啤酒」只發生在觀眾的想像之中，黏性的地板作為一個觸發器，瞬間將觀者帶回各自的經驗、記憶中的空間與身體知覺，進而能夠完成這個想像的迴圈。
在前身計畫《像是一個夜店的小便斗》（台北當代藝術中心，台北）、《從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體》（MMCA高陽工作室，首爾、Vernacular Institute，墨西哥市）到《不存在的蝸牛》中，作品中的空間設定始終是在一個夜店的廁所裡。為什麼在廁所裡，除了這裡是公共與私人的模糊交界處之外，人來來去去，也暗示物質、訊息在這裡被交換。不停流動的水與被藝術家譬喻為指示器(indicator)的水槽或是小便斗——「從一種金黃色液體變成另外一種金黃色液體」，鏡子、牆面與門板上的塗鴉與留言，也很多人在此變身——不管是物質的或是精神面上的。藝術家選取這個極具有代表性與多重性格的空間以點出物質、情境甚至是人的心理狀態如何在不同介面中穿梭。
新聞稿：
空間配置：
走在《水、麥芽、啤酒花、米、酵母》的錄音
