Guided Tour | Flora of Formosa: YANG Chung-Ming Solo Exhibition | Taiwan Forestry Research Institute

Date | 2023.10.12 (Thu) 14:00 – 15:30
Artist | YANG Chung-Ming
Speaker | SHYU Jiann-Gwo Ph.D., Taiwan Forestry Research Institute

Location | 1F, Technical Service Building, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute (Paper Sample Display Room)
Address | No. 60, Nanhai Rd., Zhongzheng District, Taipei City

A single step has created a new visage for Taiwanese printmaking.

In the 20th century, print-based art produced many classic works thanks to a diversification of materials and the involvement of outstanding artists—for example, Miró’s carborundum technique and ZAO Wou-Ki’s etching with aquatint method are brilliant results of bold experiments on the plate. Building on this history, YANG Chung-Ming further considers the possibilities of “material” and “carrier.” He has experimented with turning the original plate (matrix) used in the engraving process into the main body of the work; this exhibition goes a step further by liberating “paper” from its ancient role of merely serving content.

Starting from the technique of hand papermaking and combining the principles of print-based creation with the Forestry Research Institute’s fiber studies, after countless failures in the laboratory and years of persistence by artists and scientists, they finally re-present the spaces, objects, and botanical specimens left behind from the Japanese colonial period in their most beautiful form, as if resurrected from distant time.

In the “Flora of Formosa” series, what appears before the viewer are sheets of paper that do not bear a single drop of ink—fragile to the point of heartbreak. Bathed in light and shadow, page after page of beauty that is real yet illusory enchants the viewer. YANG Chung-Ming quietly expands the boundaries of print-based art into another universe that we cannot imagine or recognize, and through the beauty of objects, he reaches directly into the deepest feelings of the heart.

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