Lockdown Universe: The Square
Main Gallery Area Artist
Lockdown Universe: The Beam
Artist Information
Chunghsuan Lan
1991 Born in Taipei
2016 Graduated from Pratt Institute, Masters of Fine Arts
2016 “Babylone- U.S.A.”, Pierogi Gallery (New York,U.S.A.)
2016 “Insomnia”, Pratt Institute Steuben Gallery (New York,U.S.A.)
2018 “YES Taiwan VII”, Aki Gallery (Taipei,Taiwan)
2018 “Sights/Sites”, Good Underground Art Space (Hualien,Taiwan)
2019 “Li Yuan-chia and Homages to” Each Modern (Taipei,Taiwan)
“I do not belong to any group that I have not chosen. The blood I have, the gender I am, the country I am from, the culture I inherit, the education given to me, my family and so on, all those skins added on me before my consciousness developed are the obstacles of my free will. I was unwillingly assigned to a home and was socialized there with no choice. I will abandon the ones I do not want, although it might go against the expectation of home. I will carry on with the ones I want, and keep seeking my heaven or my hell.” - Lan Chunghsuan
In Lockdown Universe, Lan Chunghsuan uses multiple black images to reconstruct a room inspired by his childhood memory of being locked into a dark room as a punishment. Each image is a 35mm lm camera photograph that was exposed to total darkness, then digitally put together. The artist combines his memory and his current interpretation of it to represent that cell, the Lockdown Universe.
[Comment by Selector]
Chunghsuan Lan is an artist from Taipei, Taiwan, who studied art in New York. After experience as an artist in residence at the Arteles Creative Center in Finland in 2017 and at the AIR3331 program at 3331 Arts Chiyoda in 2018, he is now based in Taipei. Through photography, poetry, film and sound installation he creates work with themes of freedom, tradition, death, and the desire for darkness. These themes can be seen as the shouts of an artist trying to face his experiences and identity exhaustively, and to set himself free from oppression. The darkness Chunghsuan Lan expresses is dangerously beautiful – so fantastical and alluring that we almost surrender ourselves to it. Chunghsuan Lan, riding the crest of the contemporary art scene in Taiwan and increasing international recognition, presents his work for the first time in Japan at this 3331 ART FAIR. His is definitely a name to keep in mind.