Journey Through Negative Space: Hsu Yung-hsu’s Lyrical Theatre
Abstract
Traveling between the East and West through Negative Space
Prior to 1998, Hsu Yung-hsu (b. 1955) made a series of figurative sculpture in the form of pairs of dancers that seemed to have stepped out of a Matisse painting, and likewise, in the period from 1998 to 2000, he continued in a figurative vein with standalone groupings of semi-abstract sculptures inspired by pharaohs from Egyptian tombs and the works of Henry Moore. His show, Transcending Boundaries, mounted at the end of 2006, marked a turning point for the artist, as he cast aside this connection with traditional format or with the representation of realistic objects, and instead installed the gallery with two meter high, ellipsoid loops resembling seaweed. He created a theatrical effect by arranging many of these loosely formed objects freely around the exhibition area so visitors could walk among them.
1. Constructing Space and Simplicity with Minimalism
Hsu’s large scale installations of pure forms like this are influenced by the work of minimalist or post-minimalist artists such as Richard Serra (b. 1939), Fred Sandback (1943-2003) or Michael Heizer (b. 1944)[1]. Unlike early minimalist geometric sculpture, which only allowed viewers to view the art from a distance, these three artists all enlarge pure, concise, bare-bones geometric forms to sometimes over six meters in size and invite viewers to move among the work. In Serra’s case the work resembles an iron fortress, in Sandback’s, he adds the outline of multiple, nonexistent walls about the same height as the room to the exhibition space, and Heizer digs dark wells into the gallery floor that surround the viewers. Viewers can follow the enclosures that the various arcs of Serra’s tall walls create, or move among the outlines that create Sandback’s imaginary walls (Sandback called this piece Pedestrian Space[2]) or experience the feeling of being drawn into Heizer’s dark and bottomless chasms.
Hsu Yung-hsu, having been influenced by the negative space created by these works, took his familiar material, clay, shaped it into dozens of two-meter high band-like elliptical loops and then arranged them in groups. These arrangements create aisles that guide viewers as they walk among the work, appreciate the hand modeled textures of the surfaces and turn around to look at the intersecting positive and negative spaces created by the loops.
2. Journey through the Labyrinth of Chinese Gardens
As visitors travel through this garden of large ceramic ellipses, time and space seem to suddenly interlock. It reminds me of winding through the green and shady alleys of southern Chinese gardens. There is no way of confirming what seems to exist in these gardens, since no matter how you go, it is impossible to take in the entire view. It is not like gazing off into the distance as Li Bai wrote, “The lonely sail is a distant shadow, on the edge of a green emptiness,” but rather like the indirectness in the line from a poem by Bai Juyi, “Still hiding half her face from us behind her lute,” and visual and bodily experiences tend to overlap. After walking through one of these labyrinth Chinese gardens, and then trying to piece together a complete image from memory, we find there is just no way to make it complete.
At the time when one is leisurely enjoying and taking in the garden, there is mutual deference between the person and the scenery rather than an antagonistic relationship. Hsu Yung-hsu’s installation of two-meter tall elliptical loops that viewers can walk through, seems related to the visual and physical experience of the winding and narrow pathways in these gardens. Furthermore, comparing this experience of strolling through a Chinese garden, with being subject to the domineering attitude and oppressive feeling created by the minimalist art I described before, we can see how these artists’ intentions are very different.
Earthy Textures and the Quality of the Hand-Made Object: Lyrical Aesthetics
What I find interesting about Hsu’s sculptures is the rich texture on the ellipses created by the modeling process, the organic twists and turns in the forms and how this reminds us of the rockeries that decorate Chinese gardens. They are also reminiscent of the cun dry brush technique and unhurried rhythm found in Dwelling in the Fu-chun Mountains by the Yuan Dynasty painter Huang Gongwang, the rock-like texture of the garments in the paintings of Lohans by Guan Xiu (833-913) of the Five Dynasty era and how Zheng Banqiao creates positive and negative space with black bamboo and white rocks in Rocks and Bamboo. At first glance, it seems that Hsu’s works bear no relationship to these various paintings; however, the similarity lies in the abstract, organic qualities of Chinese landscape and figure painting, or even in the trees and rocks of Chinese gardens. His works are much like these depictions of mountains and streams formed with a leisurely and natural line quality, and the interesting abstractions created in the paintings by corresponding positive and negative spaces. This is also what we can observe in Hsu’s work; some shared traits within the purview of Chinese aesthetics.
Furthermore, Hsu’s artworks, some whole and others in abstract fragments, configured in his installations in both standing and lying positions, express an urgent desire to return to a time before potter’s wheel and plaster casting, and to a former method of ceramic manufacture based on the sincerity of hardworking artisans. His work presents hand made qualities, a departure from the hubbub of the external world and a regression to an intense concern for individual human existence.
An Exercise in Transcending the Self: Attention to the Self While Modeling Clay by Hand
1. Putting Awareness of the Body into Artwork
Hsu’s method gives precedence to the physical body, and leads to his thinking and feeling process. The most predominant aspect of this work is attention to conditions of the mind and body.
He uses a primitive and laborious clay fabrication method which is not only exhausting, but also creates feelings of anxiety and tension for this work. As viewers walk through Hsu’s large ellipses, the work doesn’t create feelings of oppression, but rather viewers sense the artist’s intense monk-like asceticism that has painstakingly created these textures, and therefore feel themselves insignificant in comparison. Secondarily, the portals that these elliptical loops suggest give us the visual sense that there is a world beyond this one, and this shifts the feeling of pressure created by these towering forms.
2. From Self Transcendence to Techniques of the Self
Why would anyone want to subject oneself to so much struggle, to obstinately force oneself to persevere in this exhausting and unbearable work? I believe it is because Hsu Yung-hsu has an intense desire to transcend himself. Such anxious desire to improve something and high standards for oneself reveal a zealous desire for self transcendence.
A few years ago, Hsu Yung-hsu attended a reading club which discussed Michel Foucault’s famous lecture The Hermeneutics of the Subject (L’Hermeneutique du sujet: Cours au Collège de France). Foucault’s discussion of techniques of the self (techniques de soi) from this lecture explores the most extreme forms of self cultivation, and had a profound impact on Hsu[3] and contributed to his asceticism. Because of this experience, he has made his large elliptical and undulating hoops thinner and thinner and displays them on end, creating a feeling of instability. As viewers stand before these works or move among them, it seems as if they can sense the artist’s feeling of restlessness.
Epilogue
All we observe flow from nature.As I observe nature, I paint and sculpt.As I observe myself, I pinch the clay and form myself. I become a part of the record which is my work and become one aspect of the entire installation. At this time, the object and myself, the work and myself seemto be indivisible.
References
Foucault, Michel. The Hermeneutics of the Subject. 1st ed. Trans. She Biping. Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin Chubanshe, 2005.
Hsu, Yung-hsu. Transcending Boundaries: Tainan National University of the Arts Master’s Dissertation. With academic advisor Chang Ching-yuan. (not yet published).
Huang, Changmei. Chinese Gardens and Literati Ideology. 3rd ed. Taipei: Mingwen Publishing Co. 1998.
Gong, Jow-jiun. “Authentic Body Movements and Techniques of the Self: Using Grotowski to Read the Late Works of Foucault”. ArtView. 29: 4-15.
Foster, Hal. Richard Serra: Torqued Spirals, Toruses and Spheres. New York: Gagosian Gallery. 2001
Honour, Hugh and John Fleming. A World History of Art. 7th ed. London: Laurence King. 2005.
Notes:
- When Hsu Yung-hsu went to America for travel in 2005, he came across the artworks of these three artists and remarked, “Their work is basically about using material, space and the body as a means of expression.” Hsu, Yung-hsu, p.10. When he indicated the body, he was referring to viewers’ experience as they walk among such large scale work, or the feeling of being drawn into a deep hole as they stand along its edge. This is not at all the same as that Hsu makes the body a priority in trying to guide his mind when working with clay, Hsu, Yung-hsu, p.14.
- For information regarding Pedestrian Space, see Fred Sandback, Sculpture 1966-1986, Mannheim: Kunsthalle. 1986 as reprinted on the Dia Art Foundation Website, Remarks on my Sculpture 1966-86. 29 September 2007<http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/sandback/sculpture/remarks.htm>.
- At that time, the scholars Gong Jow-jiun, Fabian Heubel and others started the reading club with the original version of The Hermeneutics of the Subject. The French title was first translated as 主體詮釋學 in Chinese. During club meetings, the book was orally translated into Chinese over several sessions. The book was later translated into Chinese in Mainland China under the name 主體解釋學. At the time that Hsu Yung-hsu attended this book club he was particularly influenced by the techniques of the self that were described in the book. Hsu, Yung-hsu, abstract.
[1] When Hsu Yung-hsu went to America for travel in 2005, he came across the artworks of these three artists and remarked, “Their work is basically about using material, space and the body as a means of expression.” Hsu, Yung-hsu, p.10. When he indicated the body, he was referring to viewers’ experience as they walk among such large scale work, or the feeling of being drawn into a deep hole as they stand along its edge. This is not at all the same as that Hsu makes the body a priority in trying to guide his mind when working with clay, Hsu, Yung-hsu, p.14.
[2] For information regarding Pedestrian Space, see Fred Sandback, Sculpture 1966-1986, Mannheim: Kunsthalle. 1986 as reprinted on the Dia Art Foundation Website, Remarks on my Sculpture 1966-86.
29 September 2007<http://www.diacenter.org/exhibs/sandback/sculpture/remarks.htm>.
[3] At that time, the scholars Gong Jow-jiun, Fabian Heubel and others started the reading club with the original version of The Hermeneutics of the Subject. The French title was first translated as 主體詮釋學 in Chinese. During club meetings, the book was orally translated into Chinese over several sessions. The book was later translated into Chinese in Mainland China under the name 主體解釋學. At the time that Hsu Yung-hsu attended this book club he was particularly influenced by the techniques of the self that were described in the book. Hsu, Yung-hsu, abstract.