We experience the “external world” as we known through our senses, and then match the experience with the proper “language” internally. “We”, as the subjective body, connecting with the “external world” through uses of language, is a process described as “指物” (Zhǐwù) ― designation/ Indexing.
“‘名’ (the name, or sign) is the reference; ‘實’ (the object) is the referent.” During the course of designation, the ”name” represents the content of an artificially developed concept or knowledge. It is a language tool akin to how we describe the world, an effective code used as writing unit. The process of naming and designation unveils the human value judgement, which also involves expression of personal preference, attitude, and emotional tendency.
Ancient artworks depicting the real world is exactly designation at work. lt functions effectively just like the linguistic tool of names and sings. Today, the expressive context of the contemporary art has departed from the kind of precise depiction with scientific language in the past, and became a form of poetic language that draws from various objects, concepts, and meta-languages. It no longer pursuits the effective “matching of reference and referent.”
This exhibition attempts to reflect on the “designation/ Indexing” at work in contemporary art with the simple theory of sign and object: simulating the truth with sensual experiences, rather than the pursuit of reproducing reality through "sencial mimicry"; The human subjective "seeing for oneself", "hearing for oneself" is forever influenced by the "ghost of the sense"; as the artwork continually to deconstruct from a "post-meta" stance, it presents the designation process of contemporary art as a drift. The name/sing then become a form of private language.
About the exhibition
Date: March 4 – May 1, 2016
Venue: Gallery 402/201, Kuandu Museum of Art
Curator: Yang Ya-Siang
Artists: Wang Yin-Sheng, Ho Yen-Yen, Wu Shang-Yang, Lin Shen, Yang I-Hsuan, Ou Jing-Yun, Tsai Yi-Ting, Cai Shang-Fu, Hsieh Yu-Cheng
Courtesy of the artists and Kuandu Museum of Art, for further information please visit www.kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw.
