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2023 Double Solo Exhibitions At the Waley Art Space

Exhibition Introduction

Exhibition Key Visual
Exhibition dissertation

▋GoToHell - Hell Train Guide|Min,Shih-Han and Chen,Chih-Yang Double Solo Exhibitions

Artists|Min,Shih-Han and Chen,Chih-Yang  

Duration|September 27, 2023, to October 22, 2023

Time|Monday to Sunday, 12:00 - 19:30

Venue|Waley Art Space B1-4F 

Artist Talk|October 3 (Tue.), 14:00 , Panelists: Yao Jui-Chung

xhibition Opening|October 3(Tue.) 16:00 

Organizer|水谷藝術 Waley Art 

※Waley Art received funding from the National Culture and Arts Foundation's 112th-year Visual Arts Organization Operational Support Project.

 

This exhibition at Waley Art revolves around the artists' imaginings of hell. For instance, on the first floor, there's a scenic installation titled "Money talks-coin op machines (Money Can Make Ghosts Grind)" It requires coins to activate the piece, symbolizing the cyclical nature of existence. The concept here is that hell and the human world coexist; the only difference lies in the perspective we adopt to view them. In the basement, the CCTV content of "Hell Live Broadcast" overlaps with reality. Through surveillance cameras, viewers can witness the presence of hell's messengers within Waley Art's parallel spacetime. Similarly, on the second floor, the video "Hell Train Guide" creates an endless loop, akin to a perpetual cycle one cannot escape. Journeying through hell is portrayed as casually as a holiday trip to an amusement park, sometimes even more exciting than daily life, yet individuals are compelled to move forward like puppets.

The recurrent appearance of hell's messengers across these works, akin to recurring nightmares or the whims of fate, prompts reflection. However, through the lens of "changing perspectives to see that hell and the human world are not so different," it's reminiscent of the adage: "Humans are scarier than ghosts." Could it be that, upon a change in perspective, people become more malicious than the messengers of hell? When one realizes they're already living in a kind of hell, the fear of it dissipates because, compared to the horrors of human existence, hell seems less terrifying.

Space Schematic diagram

Exhibited works

Money talks-coin op machines

When the audience inserts a 10 NT dollar coin, the track installation activates. Starting from the beginning, a custom-made model car equipped with a video camera provides the perspective of a prisoner transport mine cart. This viewpoint is simultaneously displayed on a large TV screen. Much like the other animation work "Hell Train Guide" on the second floor, it shuttles between the real-world city and the cyclical hell.

 
 
Go to Hell

Capturing 3D images of the artworks from the exhibition space, the content is rearranged and outputted, then framed with laser-cut mirrored acrylic. This allows the audience to glimpse scenes of hell through the framed view.

 
 
​Gacha machine - Monster Lottery

For a special event during the exhibition, you can exchange 50 NT dollars for tokens to use in the capsule toy machine. Among the 40 capsules, you have a chance to win two 3D models, an acrylic keychain, and a fortune slip.

 
 
 
Hell Live Broadcast

Using 3D animation to reconstruct the space at Waley Art, fake surveillance cameras are installed in corresponding positions in the real world. The footage appears to show hell monsters viewing the exhibition in a parallel dimension.

 
 
 
Cave Adventure Shibaluohan Cave

The artist once used a mobile phone to 3D scan the abandoned Eighteen Arhats Cave in Keelung. After it was vandalized, the artist attempted to recall the events of past visits while memories were still fresh. The artist gathered two companions from those visits, and together they reminisced, blending many true and fictional stories.

 
 
 
Hell Train Guide

The video content begins in the everyday life of the city and transitions through gradually distorted realities until reaching hell. There, viewers take a prisoner’s mine cart to experience a tour of hell. The scenes in hell are absurd and bizarre, in stark contrast to the monotonous and repetitive scenes of the human world. Hell appears novel and intriguing, making a tour of hell feel like a day trip to an amusement park. After exiting the hell cave, visitors return to the human world to face the reality of earthly hell, continuing in an endless cycle of reincarnation.

 
 
 
 
 
Door Gods

Two standing hell monsters, when illuminated, cast shadows on either side, resembling guardian deities.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Wheel of Destiny

Traditional descriptions of the Ten Courts of Hell and the King of the Wheel of Rebirth state that reincarnation is based on the karma accumulated during one's lifetime. On the Wheel of Fate, the options for reincarnation appear sequentially as the various species currently known to exist. Theoretically, this wheel should spin endlessly because there are millions of existing species.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Exhibition Documentary

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