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- Chen Shige Exhibition: “Steamed Peach Buns”
EXHIBITION
The 22nd “1_WALL” Graphics Competition Grand Prize Winner
Chen Shige Exhibition: “Steamed Peach Buns”
- DATES : Tue. January 26 - Sat. February 20, 2021
- HOURS : 11:00a.m.-7:00p.m.
- Closed Sundays and Holidays. Admission free.
On February 4, Thursday the gallery will close at 6:30 p.m. in order to prepare for that evening’s Talk Event.
* Inside the gallery, all visitors are requested to submit to a temperature check, sanitize their hands, wear a face mask, and maintain a social distance of 2 meters. Persons with any of the following symptoms are requested to refrain from visiting: fever (above 37.5℃), cough, sore throat, general fatigue, etc. Visitors are also requested to take all necessary precautions to protect against infection while en route to the gallery.
Chen Shige won the Grand Prize in the 22nd “1_WALL” Graphics Competition, held in the spring of 2020, for “Those who are without 5 yen are beyond redemption,” his work on the theme of uncertainty and ambiguity. He received high acclaim from the judging panel for his humorous motif connections and the power of his works to capture the attention of the viewer.
Chen Shige creates works employing a variety of methods and materials: paintings, illustrations, mixed-media installations, etc. His works, rooted in the uncertainty of words and doubt toward words themselves, develop motifs from connections of different layers. His aim in his works is for things to stand up from believing, and to give birth to new creations from blank spaces.
For his solo exhibition, Chen has chosen the theme of peach-shaped steamed buns. He develops this theme into works derived from such buns’ associated imagery and wordplays. Visitors are sure to enjoy Chen Shige’s creations on display one year after his prize-winning feat.
On February 4, Thursday, a Talk Event will be held bringing together Chen Shige and his guest, graphic designer Atsuki Kikuchi, for a discussion on the theme of blank space. Chen says, “I should explore the out-of-focus side allowance present in all phenomena.”
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Chen Shige
Chen Shige was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1993. He attended Taipei National University of the Arts, ...
Message from Artist
There’s something off the mark about steamed peach buns. To be precise, steamed peach buns aren’t what they seem to be. Steamed pizza buns and steamed meat buns have the flavors their names say they have, but steamed peach buns contain soybeans. Sweet soybean paste, of all things. In Japanese, what’s known as “an.” “a” and “n,” the first and last letters of the Japanese alphabet, shoulder every conceivable burden and fill themselves with the spiritual ether of the creation of the universe. How should one examine closely the reality of a steamed peach bun moving back and forth between the senses of sight and taste? And yet the blurring continues, just as I do. My buns, easily obtainable by spraying peach color with an atomizer purchased at a 100-yen shop, likely have absolutely no interest in the absence of any peach. While being grateful from the bottom of their hearts for my peach, they hope for eternal absence of peach. Their peach color, vacillating between “a” and “n,” is an intermediary. What I feel is of no consequence. With no place to be, I offer a double “banzai.”
Chen Shige
Message from One of the Judges
Chen Shige’s chosen motifs are all easy to relate to. A plunger used to unclog a toilet. Those twist tie things used to close packaged bread. Tofu. A 5-yen coin. A silly cat face. A hand sign like a Buddhist statue’s mudra. And a large steamed peach bun. They all say “Decipher me,” and because all of them are familiar and look approachable, we let down our guard and think “Yeah, yeah, I see what’s meant by it.” And yet Chen Shige says “Things don’t convey.” He says he’s been interested in language from the time he was a child, and his Japanese is amazingly fluent; yet he said to me that “Everyone knows that words don’t convey anything.” Even so, I don’t sense any loneliness. He seems to enjoy the gap. After talking with him, I went alone to a local Chinese bar that’s open 24 hours. Since they had steamed peach buns, I ordered one. They put it in a microwave to heat it, and what came out was a teeny tiny bun. The inside was all dried out. I wonder if I’m the only one who saw a great Asian desert behind Chen Shige depicting steamed peach buns pretending to be drawings.
Kuniko Nagasaki (Illustrator)
