2019-5

“Earth” is the primary medium used in this artwork. Rocks, after weathering, form a parent material mixed with various minerals and organic matter to become soil, the foundation of human life. Utilizing the earth’s soil is the artist’s creative appeal. Soil can be hard or soft. Through the artist’s hands, “earth” takes on many different possibilities. This piece is composed of layers of clay strips, forming a massive volume. Six large-scale ceramic works, each over two meters in height, are placed side by side, maintaining a distance that allows viewers to wander between them. Up close, the height is imposing, while from afar, they conjure up the image of a city’s ramparts. The surface is covered with holes and textures formed by hand during the coiling process, with thousands of holes embodying the passage of time in their creation. Internal lighting shines through these surface holes, adding a sense of permeability and, from a distance, evoking the image of a city’s nightscape. The work offers multiple states of being viewable, explorable, and habitable, providing a varied experience as one switches between viewing it from a distance and up close.

HSU Yunghsu, born in 1955 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, graduated with a Master of Arts from the Graduate Institute of Applied Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. With a concept centered on the body as the main subject of creation, HSU invests great determination and perseverance into his art, emphasizing the dialogue between the body and the artwork. He approaches the creative material by merging the subject and the body, allowing for an interplay and interaction with the world through the body’s perception, touch, and pain within the existing earth-based structures, thus shaping his artworks.