MSAC: This solo exhibition, titled "Treasure Island", puts on display your first major new body of work since winning the Grand Prize at the 21st Taishin Arts Award in 2023. Could you discuss how your creative practice and mindset have evolved since your previous solo exhibition "As You Sleep Worry-Free" from three years ago?
TANG: As far as my mindset is concerned, the changes have been complex. At first, I felt nothing but pure, straightforward excitement until someone reminded me not to let external recognition disrupt my mental creative balance – Essentially, don't let it become a burden. How should I put it ... I actually lost that mental balance after hearing that. Being conscious of something is like being struck — no matter how you approach this problem, you inevitably lose your original state of mind and creative balance. I felt I was mired in this prolonged psychological limbo. Though I kept on creating, the thought kept flashing in my head: Am I improving? Am I climbing or falling? Will people think I've regressed? These distractions turned into constant irritants, keeping in mind that I am fundamentally anti-intellectual at heart.
There’s no need to keep blathering about it. This mental hurdle is a phone app you can’t uninstall — you’ll just need to live with it. Speaking of which, I did remove Facebook from my phone, but that’s another story.
The act of creation lives through its own cycle of emergence and dissolution in my studio. This is why it exists beyond words. Its navigational order doesn’t conform to external thoughts.
This period has been exactly that: a life of contradiction and chaos.
MSAC: Did winning the Grand Prize at the Taishin Arts Award affect the preparation of this exhibition in ways that are different than previous ones?
TANG: I believe that the significance of any award remains confined to the year it was received. The consistent focus on one’s self and on the world is one and the same thing. I simply go with the flow and manageable the ideas and inspiration that happen to be right in front of me. As long as I’m doing that, I don’t consider it wasted time or effort.
MSAC: The exhibition title "Treasure Island" seems to form an intertextual dialogue with your previous solo, "As You Sleep Worry-Free", from three years ago. You seem to employ, in both shows, allegorical language and metaphorical tones to express your concerns or reflections on Taiwan’s current situation. Could you elaborate on this?
TANG: I’d like to tactfully address some of the concerns in our current time.
If the drastic changes in the world in the past few years have caused concerns, then wouldn’t today’s unprecedented prosperity suggested by the stock market seem like fiction in a virtual world? Reality has always resembled an allegory.
The title “Treasure Island” came to me on the Chinese New Year’s Eve when my family and I went for a walk by the coast. We stopped at an independent bookstore near the Keelung Harbor, and I went in to browse around. A copy of “Treasure Island” caught my eye, and something quietly resonated when I picked it from the shelf.
On March 2, the day after Zelensky was scolded by Trump on live television, I went on a night bike ride with a friend to the Xiaguzi Fishing Port in Bali District. Under the night sky, Xiaguzi seems to exist right on the outskirt of civilization — an area where foreign fishermen, coast patrols that occasionally pass by, and urban wanderers gathered, carrying a faint air of danger. It reminded me that the world has always been a pirate ship.
You absorb all kinds of information in life, and the works will subsequently build upon these elements, and you’ll gradually see the invisible interconnection. That’s all there is.
In today’s world, the news grows more violent, dramatic, self-contradictory and confusing on a daily basis. And this applies to news on all subjects, whether it’s politics, science, finance, justice, war, etc.
The Taiwan Strait is just a window to all that’s happening.
MSAC: Compared to "As You Sleep Worry-Free" from three years ago, are there noticeable differences in your creative approach or methods of expression in this new exhibition?
TANG: I’ve used somewhat more vibrant colors this time, and have also experimented a bit with three-dimensional sculptures. The overall narrative is more sporadic and fragmented, and the relationship between the elements at the core and in the periphery is more chaotic.
MSAC: You depict tragic heroic figures such as Van Gogh and Beethoven in some of your works in this exhibition. Did you do so out of personal admiration, or do you wish to convey certain opinions on artistic creation?
TANG: I incorporated these figures in my work as a playful reinterpretation — shrinking their monumental historical presence into a small and approachable. Their tragedy has subsequently been softened and has little weight, and we no longer feel stifled by the gravity of their stories.
I wasn’t aware of whom I was portraying during the process. The figures only became recognizable after I was done, and I gave them names, that’s all. These references gradually weave new connections between different paintings. It’s not something to be taken too seriously.
It’s like how, two months before an exhibition, works were selected from the studio, photographed, framed, measured, and titled. I always finalize their names and relationships at the very last moment — one final act of shaping the exhibition’s narrative.
MSAC: Images of turbulent oceans and forests appear across multiple works in this exhibition. Do these elements carry metaphorical meanings?
TANG: Let me see: The raging waves, primal jungles, wild beasts, and ships perhaps don’t require much explanation. In this day and age, these symbols would likely resonate with everyone regardless of their point of view.
As a small island brimming with geopolitical significance (an "unsinkable aircraft carrier," as some people describe), whether viewed as part of an island chain or a hub of tech manufacturing, these narratives are produced by distant empires. If we were to unpack it all, we’d end up saying too much, which wouldn’t be necessary. The title "Treasure Island" alone evoke such rich imagery and associations that they already open ample space for imagination.
MSAC:You are launching, for the first time in your career, a series of clay sculptures. What motivated you to adopt this new medium, and how does the process of working with clay relate to or dialogue with your painting practice?
TANG: These clay sculptures emerged almost by accident. Initially, I attempted something else but failed shortly after I started, several time. So, I kept changing themes, abandoning the project completely and to restart all over. Building three-dimensional objects requires a distinct structural logic, a more powerful mental CPU to properly craft all angles and sides in order to ensure the form remains coherent and meaningful. Suffice to say that I don’t have the capacity, but through countless failures, I eventually devised a makeshift approach. In a way, it feels like the principles of painting hijacked the sculptural process. The bits making up the sculptures aren’t about volume and more like brushstrokes translated into space. Whether the results are fully realized or not, the joy of making them pulled me out of the shadow of those early frustrations.
My original intention was to created sculptures of sagging boats piled on top of each other.
MSAC:In your artist statement, you conclude with: “Spend this life, walk into the forest.” Does this reflect your broader perspective on art and life?
TANG: This statement also represents a recalibration of my own outlook on life and a subsequent step forward. It’s difficult to put it in words. Civilization and language are like a great city that constantly build and expand upon itself. As it grows grander, its intricate networks of relationships also entangle and consume you.
Only by walking into the forest can your true self reemerge.
To understand how we arrived here, you must trace your steps back.
It’s not about learning a new way of seeing — it’s about uninstalling your existing programming on perception. This is a process of moving backward.
Because the true world has no language. You don’t need to grasp it through frameworks, or wait for answers from concepts built on terms and jargons. This journey is entirely your own. Only by understanding how your way of seeing was constructed can you gradually retrace your steps.
Yes, this reflects my view on art and life.
I wrote these words two years ago:
“Lend me a path out of the city center, close my eyes, spend this life, walk into the forest.”
MSAC: Is there anything you wanted to achieve in this exhibition but haven’t yet accomplished?
TANG: I scaled back the discourse towards the end of my artist statement partly because some works that more directly addressed the theme weren’t included in this exhibition due to spatial and visual considerations. Besides, emphasizing too much on the theme would appear pretentious.
I originally dreamed about suspending a real fishing boat from the ceiling (to suggest we’re beneath the sea, looking up at the boat?). However:
- It was too difficult and complicated.
- I’m not an installation artist.
- I’d have to explain it…?
- The space is limited, and the visual impact might have been too cacophonous.
An exhibition always has unfinished dimensions.