SUPERSENSIBLE
Introduction
From the worldview of the anthropocene, humans and the non-human rest of the world are placed in opposition, generating a binary which is too often seen as a simplistic exclusion. By reducing everything beyond ourselves to an outline, this binary suppresses the breadth of exchange and dialogue we have the potential to manifest. Indiscriminately referring to nascent technologies like AI, natural forces and organic matter, the ‘non-human’ tells us nothing, except about ourselves. By exploring multispecies perspectives however, we are challenged to consider whether the human gaze can ever move away from its centrism towards a more inclusive worldview, rich with interspecies empathy.
Curiosity animates us; can we co-exist and form intimacy if we fail to acknowledge the full diversity of non-human beings?
Pursuing this intimacy calls for a more complex imagining of care, it demands a deconstruction of care as it pervades relationships between humans and non-humans. Can we move past viewing care as necessary, as wanted, as positive? Can we decenter the experience of caring from the human to the non-human and envision death, decay, pleasure and pain all as alternate figurations of care?
Within this exhibition, water and wind energetically collaborate with female bodies to form resistance. Virtual terra of woven textiles allows queer indigenous bodies to hold space for real terra dispossessed. Stained and burdened ecologies are distilled and packaged as consumer goods, while eroticism is embraced as means to deeply root our connection to the terra. No single crisp, clean understanding of how to foster intimacy across species arises. Rather, each work, borne of its local context, is embedded with its own specificity.
The common thread is sensory stimulus. Viewing, touching, tasting, smelling and hearing rouse the sensorium rooted in every organism and allows interpretation across species. Though we cannot remove the potential for misinterpretation, our senses offer new ground to cultivate intimacy beyond human language. Without tendering answers, we can at least begin to question; how can we use our senses, not only sight, to enlarge the idea of care and come closer to the non-human?
Using the word ‘supersensible’ to frame this exhibition betrays the fraught practice of trying to understand something which can never be wholly understood from a human perspective. In our desire for intimacy with the supersensible, the title also acknowledges that any connection we might hope to foster with the non-human must recruit the full capacity of our senses, and 超越人之感 hints at any possibility to surpass human senses, to push beyond human capabilities, perhaps getting close to non-human beings’ sensoriums. Distilling English and Mandarin together, the title highlights the diversity of the human species, who within themselves erect barriers through language which can only be breached by the advent of our other senses.
Artist
Pam Virada is a Thai artist whose practice often focuses on her private memories through the lens of gender and relationships. Her works also reflect on the wider narrative of history in both a political and cultural perspective. Virada works in various media such as film, installation, publication, and photography. Her recent exhibitions include The Mirror (Merten Frames Project Space by Plan B, Amsterdam, 2021) with Diego Diez, and THE BODY IS A CIRCLE, WHICH COMES HOME IN THE HANDS (Gravity Art Space, Quezon City, 2022).
Hideki Umezawa and Koichi Sato both graduated from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. Together they conduct field work and research about the relationship between industry and natural environments, and create installations and performances incorporating elements of imagery and sound. Main exhibitions include “Emergencies! 040: Umezawa Hideki + Sato Koichi Structures of Liquidity (NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo, 2021), Thailand Biennale, Korat 2021 (Korat City, 2012-22) and Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 2023).
Anchi Lin [Ciwas Tahos] is a performance and new media artist of Taiwanese Indigenous Atayal and Hō-ló descent based in Taipei, Taiwan. Following a Bachelor of Fine Art in Visual Art at Simon Fraser University (Canada), Lin is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Art in New Media Art at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). Through her practice and interest in language, identity, gender, and the environment, Lin seeks out new forms of understanding beyond the hetero-patriarchal status quo, using video, performance, cyberspace, and installation.
Pony Express is an experimental, Live Art duo led by Ian Sinclair and Loren Kronemyer. Through their pandrogynous collaborative process, Pony Express work across platforms of media art, performance, video and transdisciplinary research. Creating immersive alternate realities that reflect themes of adaptation, global weirding and the slow apocalypse. Presenting in a diverse array of traditional and non-traditional venues and cooperating with communities, organisations and subcultures at the forefront of environmental futures.
The duo focus on queer ecologies and nonhuman politics to build worlds that trouble the ethical landscape of the present day.
Yening
Yening is a Taiwanese artist working between reality, dreams and fantasy, and creating perspectives of life that are simultaneously existent and non-existent. Her practice centers around pursuing a spiritual journey of life. She explores the meaning of the existence of nature; making observations through her art, through her painting and music. Her paintings often use the role of monsters to simulate the metaphorical situations of bystanders and parties involved.
lololol
lololol is a collective founded by duo Xia Lin and Sheryl Cheung, based in Taipei. Their practice explores modes of being, body politics, and technology cultures, using a variety of approaches like Taoist philosophy and martial arts. lololol’s works are in turn participatory, performative, collective, and span video, text, and installations. They have participated in Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival (UK), Taipei Arts Festival (TW), and Flaneur Festival (DE).
Curator
Cynthia Rakotoarisoa
張睿紘 Jui Hung Chang
Pimpakaporn Pornpeng
Rebecca Jensen
Abdirisak Ismail Qalinle
Supervisor
Taipei City Government
Organizer
Department of Cultural Affairs, Taipei City Government
Digital Art Center, Taipei
Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art (CCSCA), NTUE
Acknowledgement
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia
Heineken Silver Beer
Sunturn Energy
Ray Kuo
小泉自然酒&TRAN泉
蘇秀綢
張金鳳
Venue
Digital Art Center, Taipei
No. 180, Fuhua Rd., Shilin Dist., Taipei City, Taiwan
Events
Opening & Guided Tour
2023.08.26 Sat. 14:30 – 18:00
Closing & Curator Talk
2023.09.17 14.30 – 17.30
14.30 – 15.00 Screening
15.00 – 16.00 Curators’ talk
16.00 – 17.30 Discussion