- Liu Shih-Tung|Cotidal Line
- 2020|12.05 - 2021|01.30
- Opening 2020|12.05 4pm
- Lin & Lin Gallery
Lin & Lin Gallery is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Liu Shih-Tung: Cotidal Line, the fifth solo show of the artist at the gallery, featuring the latest cotidal line series. As Liu lives near the seashore, walking along the shore becomes part of his daily life. He collects natural and artificial cultural fragments as materials, creates an Oriental poetic painting space with his unique aesthetic and delicate collage technique.
As a transition in between the landscape and ocean, Cotidal line became a burial site of urban debris that has been scoured and drained by tides. The composition of debris also showcases the fascinating diversity of appearances due to the location differences. With that being said, the negative environmental consequences of a convenient civil life have become part of the land and moreover, the area for the artist collecting materials. There is a relationship that contains a consciously or unconsciously choice without a certain logical mindset about Liu's manner of "Collecting", through the artist's collecting and re-choosing these civilizational objects, and combining, forming, and translating them with his painting techniques that have paintings transformed with a new color spectrum, so that a series miniature of natural history landscapes of urban life memories, therefore, have been formed. At the same time, these landscapes, which are sometimes joyous and sometimes clam in silence, and seem to eliminate the harmful teeth and claws of wastes. However, the artificial colors in Liu’s paintings are like illusory beauty, that left the discussion about whether human civilization is kind to the environment is still being probed in Liu's aesthetic language.
"A print in the sand indicates the tiger's passage; a marsh announces a vein of water; the hibiscus flower, the end of winter." —Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
In Invisible Cities written by Calvino, the fictional conversations between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan about cities that Marco Polo has visited, the stories connect the relationships of cities and imagination/signs/time/imagery through collected memory fragments, breaking the boundary between reality and illusion. That, just like Liu recomposes the selected elements as a result of reconstructing the appearance and temperament of a city. In the show, we seem to be able to see the real yet illusory quality of the city and ocean through Liu's landscapes.
Born in 1970 in Miaoli, Taiwan, Liu Shih-Tung received MFA of Taipei National University of the Arts. He has numerous domestic and international exhibitions. His work is in collection of Taipei Fine Arts Museum, White Rabbit Collection, Deutsche Bank Art and so forth. In addition, Liu is frequently awarded and invited as an artist-in-residence. He was in the residence program at Youngeun Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea; at 18th Street Art Center presenting solo exhibition "Bright Eye" in LA, USA. He was selected by Asian Cultural Council to complete a two-month residency program at Morishita Studio in Tokyo, Japan. And Liu was also in the residence program at OCI Museum of Art, Soul, South Korea.