Being X—Hsin-Chien Huang’s Metaverse Theater, a special exhibition organized by the artist Hsin-Chien Huang and Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA), is now on display through March 5th, 2023.
Hsin-Chien Huang is a new media artist with backgrounds in art, design, engineering, and electronic gaming who has been deeply involved in technologies and ideas in various fields. After returning home from the United States in 2001, the artist has been working on numerous public art and large-scale installations. Since 2016, he has devoted himself in VR and new media creations which integrate performing, mechanical apparatus, algorithmic computations, and video installations, showing Taiwan the imaginative world of virtual reality.
Huang’s artworks have been recognized globally and have triumphed at various international film festivals. His VR film Bodyless won the Special Mention award at Kaohsiung Film Festival in 2019 and the Golden Mask at the NewImages Festival in Paris in 2020. His new work Samsara won the Jury Award at the Texas SXSW Festival in the United States, Grand Prize for the Best VR Narrative at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival XR category and Honorary Mention in the Computer Animation category at Prix Ars Electronica in 2022.
Curated with KMFA, Being X—Hsin-Chien Huang’s Metaverse Theater, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in his homeland. Dr. Yulin Lee, director of KMFA, specifically mentioned that Huang’s artworks create an immersive experience of “story-living.” They are an interpretation of the society of modern technologies and mankind’s status quo, inviting viewers to explore topics such as life, memories, politics, traumas, eco-system, and our fate in the future.
Huang’s projects at different creating stages are showcased in the exhibition, including award-winning pieces La Camera Insabbiata, Samsara, and Bodyless. His VR installation Aloft, collaboratedwith legendary multi-media pioneer Laurie Anderson, is also exhibited in Taiwan for the first time. Additionally, to reflect the spirit of “twdesign.tw,” Huang transformed The Universe of Liu Kuo-Sung, a modern ink painting, into a VR video, which was originally shown in 2019 in Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts’ exhibition To the Moon.
KMFA breaks the framework of traditional curating approaches when designing the format of this exhibition. The curators organize the show as a film festival which creates immersive experience for visitors, allowing them to savor the artist’s classic works via VR installations. Meanwhile, through virtual reality, physical boundaries are broken, and cultural equity is put into practice. During the exhibition, wheelchair seating is planned as well to create a viewer-friendly environment and to fulfill the social practice of arts. With the new exhibiting format and a great variety of artworks, we believe that this special exhibition will impress the audience with an unprecedented experience.
Being X—Hsin-Chien Huang’s Metaverse Theater https://being-x.kmfa.gov.tw/
October 8th 2022 – March 5th, 2023
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Gallery 101-103
