YANG Chun-Sen｜Egon Schiele Art Centrum - Arts Residency Network Taiwan 藝術進駐網

Location	Czech Republic / Český Krumlov
Residency	Egon Schiele Art Centrum
Year of the Grant	2004
Work	Floating
Personal Website	YANG Chun-Sen's Personal Website

YANG Chun sen was born in Kinmen in 1972. He received his MFA in Sculpture from San Francisco Art Institute in1999. He was a lecturer at Tamkang University, Taipei, Taiwan, and the curator for the 2010 Guandu International Outdoor Sculpture Festival, Taipei, Taiwan. YANG specializes in public art, light art, sculpture, and art criticism, and has been in residency programs at ArtSpace, Sydney, Australia, Anderson Ranch Arts Center, CO, USA, and the Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan.

Artist Statement

Artists from Austria, Germany, Hungary, and Taiwan gathered at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum in the Czech Republic. They worked in a variety of media, including literature, installation art, video, drawing/painting, and sculpture. One has the opportunity to be in contact with many different forms of art at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum. The structure for the artist residency program was still being developed during my residency, although the space exhibited exemplary contemporary art.

During my residency, I focused my artistic investigation on the transformation of ‘light and mixed-media’ work in spaces with different ‘light source cultures’ from Taiwan. My research on the light source aesthetics in a foreign culture allowed me to reflect on my own art practice, and it furthermore inspired me to create work that combined light and ancient architecture at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum.

I incorporated optical fiber materials with the historical spaces at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum and discovered the foreign energy of ‘light.’ The beautiful and well-preserved architecture in the Czech Republic provided technical support, as well as conceptual fuel for my work. At the end of my residency, I was invited by the Egon Schiele Art Centrum to show at its 2005 main exhibition. In this new exhibition, I showcased work that integrated optical fibers with ancient spaces as a way to promote the Taiwanese contemporary art in the Czech Republic.

“My residency experience three years ago at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, USA opened the door to conversations with artists from other countries. I gained a lot from that experience. My experience in the Czech Republic and my view of Eastern European arts later became important inspirations for my light and mixed-media work in Taiwan. As an extension of the work I produced during my residency at the Egon Schiele Art Centrum, I exhibited a new work, Floating, in an old winery. The main structure of this piece resembles an umbrella, and takes on multiple appearances of a giant, deep-sea jellyfish, or perhaps a UFO soaring in outer space. This surreal organism of new technology sheds light onto the concept of light, weaving, sculpture, and lighting, and enables the viewers to experience the simple yet profound marriage of ‘time/light’ across time and space.