Sisyphus’ Doubt – International Touring Exhibitions by Hsu Yunghsu
Curated by Shenghua ZHENG, Associate Professor of Fine Arts, TUT
According to Greek mythology, Sisyphus was punished for deceiving the gods and condemned to push a boulder uphill. However, each time he neared the summit, the stone rolled back down, forcing him to start over again endlessly. Trapped in this futile cycle, he spent his days struggling against the relentless weight of his burden.
The exhibition Sisyphus’ Doubt explores Hsu Yunghsu’s artistic creations—actions centered around the body, repetition, and material (clay mass). Through this, it raises profound questions: In his seemingly endless punishment, did Sisyphus ever doubt the very essence of existence? Did he ever reflect on his relationship with the boulder? How do we respond to that If art is an action of pushing the stone? What lies within the boulder? What is its specific form?
As a Taiwanese artist, Hsu Yunghsu’s work reflects an intense, almost obsessive pursuit, navigating between exploration, struggle, and endurance. Through prolonged physical labor, he repeatedly engages with massive clay. If Sisyphus’ boulder was a divine punishment, Hsu’s stone symbolizes artistic doubt and temptation—an obstacle to overcome. Bound by life’s limits yet drawn to transcendence, he pushes himself toward extremes, fully immersed in each bodily action, ignoring external conditions until unexpected pauses bring reflection. In the material itself, he searches for answers, inscribing his efforts as a profound mark of existence, emphasizing the connection between creation, resistance, and life’s boundaries. Hsu seeks answers in his materials, using his body as a sacrifice to emphasize the relationship between artistic creation and the boulder-like masses. His work reflects an ongoing existential struggle, intertwining inquiry and response. The Doubt of Sisyphus showcases over twenty representative pieces from the artist Hsu Yunghsu’s work in the past decade, presented through international touring exhibitions in Korea, Turkey, Italy and other countries. By engaging with diverse cultures, Hsu’s art offers a profound, universal response to the weight of human doubt and perseverance.
Hsu’s creative method is defined by repetition operating at multiple levels, primarily through his body – his hands, fingers, joints, and palm muscles performing the same gripping motion. To many people, such creation may seem merely to demonstrate the skill of the hand—and there’s nothing surprising in that. But precisely because it appears so simple, the question arises: why does it manifest as an ordinary movement rather than a display of technique?
Since his encountering ceramics art around 1986, Hsu Yungshu has explored chance, uncertainty, and unpredictability in his creative process. He first embraced spontaneity but later treated it as a challenge, refining techniques to their limits. Years of practice and personal transformation led him back to primal bodily instincts—kneading, shaping, and touching. His direct engagement with clay, forming hand-sized lumps through natural muscle movements, defies traditional functional or representational objects. To HSU’s artistic creativity, this seemingly simple act serves as a key to break with his habitual constraints and expanding artistic perception in his work.
In the past 20 years, repetition has shaped Hsu Yunghsu’s art. His 2005–2006 residency in New York led to a method of assembling repeated units, evolving over time. Around then, he saw Richard Serra’s massive metal sculptures in New Jersey, and felt deeply moved by their physical impact. Since then, this experience has strengthened his focus
on simple elements which rely on repetition to evolve into unique organic forms, including cup-like shapes, clay strips, sheets, imprints, and so on. When a simple action or element is repeated enough times, it transforms, a qualitative change occurs—creating something new and different. When this repetition becomes massive, whether in quantity, volume, or their combined effect, it can be overwhelming, even shocking, triggering a deep, instinctive reaction in the body.
For Hsu Yunghsu, repetition and the massive scale of his work, including the largest kiln in Taiwan, possibly even Asia, are not just about formal artistic concerns in modern art scene. They reflect his deep sensitivity as an artist and his philosophical views on existence, life ethics, and human struggles. He understands that only through physical action can he overcome doubts and difficulties in thought. So, he engages his body in creation, repeating movements endlessly, enduring labor that borders on self-torment, and continuously pushing the limits of possibility. Action, like the course of life, has moments of pause. But the struggle of pushing the stone and the hardship of existence are faithfully recorded in the clay, turning into lasting works of art.