Art Tokyo
In this era of networking, cloud computing and big data, Shih Yung Chun’s art is a new archetype of Total Art. From hundreds and thousands of photos, he develops inexhaustible contents of narrations so that he can travel across the fictional time and space he has created on his own. From 2014, Shih Yung Chun began a new approach. He places and directs the people, the objects and the contents as a theatrical scene that is close to reality and photographs it. After that, he creates a corresponding painting according to the recorded snapshots. However, these puzzling situations rarely occur in real life. So he cleverly redefines “real” every day, and only he can unrestrainedly travel in and out between the fictional and real world. However, it is not enough for Shih Yung Chun to create two parallel works of photography and painting. He goes a step further to play with fantasy and reality. In front of his giant painting completed in 2014—Delicate Vintage Shop Project. A – Interior Veledrome, he placed the real bicycle and motorcycle appearing in the painting at the exhibition. In the foreseen future, we may see Shih Yung Chun realize his theatrical installations at the upcoming exhibitions, by virtualizing camera recording and restoring time and space via paintings and installations, creating an infinite loop.
Shih Yung Chun juxtaposes the “reality” in photography as a comparison to paintings. Nevertheless, what he pursues is completely different from those Photorealistic artists in the nineteen-sixties. Photorealistic artists tried to present the stiffness and the mechanicalness of painting and the inevitable flat space in photography. However, this is what Shih Yung Chun struggles to break through. He arranges images that generate dramatic effects, and then creates the realistic effects beyond three-dimensional space. He successfully extends the representation of reality of painting from the snapshots of photography, and even extends further to restore the real installations by combining ready-mades and paintings. This “travelling” feature compiles Shih Yung Chun’s “Total Art” soliloquy.
Victoria Lu Rongzhi
