Artists
Photo Credit: NIU Chun-Chiang
CHEN Shiau-Peng
CHEN Shiau-Peng
| Location | USA / Colorado |
|---|---|
| Residency | Anderson Ranch Arts Center |
| Year of the Grant | 2011 |
| Work | Reposition／Mapping (solo exhibition) |
| Personal Website | CHEN Shiau-Peng's Personal Website |
Artist Statement:
I saw calendars as a map of time and floor plans as map of space. They represented how human beings process and visualize time and space. How we live with these designs is thought-provoking.
I returned to the United States for the first time in six years in the summer of 2011. In July, I participated in a residency at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, and then spent August in New York.
At Anderson Ranch, I returned to working with woodcuts for the first time in a decade. This conjured up memories of my time at college, where I majored in printmaking and spent a good amount of time in the studio. I thought about what I was like in college. What influence did those years ultimately have on who I’ve become? I also wondered why I had abandoned printmaking for so many years and why the impetus for printmaking returned to me after such a long hiatus, and in a place so far away.
While in New York, besides visiting various museums and galleries, I took the opportunity to see old friends and returning to places I used to frequent when I was studying for my Master’s degree. There were fleeting moments when I felt as though those days in New York ten years ago have returned, but more often my intuition reminded me that time has changed everything, including myself. I asked myself who I might have become if I’d never left New York. Of course, the question was moot. In life, you can only ever move forward.
Those two months were a unique time of looking back at my past; a recognition of two defining periods in my life. I suppose they were also a tacit reminder that my present self wishes to say goodbye to the past and start anew.