“Walking the Crack” Metaphors of Contemporary Life, Odysseys in Linearity

“Walking the Crack” takes place on the 2nd floor galleries of Taipei Fine Arts Museum, from Sept. 8, 2022 to Jan. 8, 2023. Curated by TFAM senior curator Fang-Wei Chang, it brings together 28 artists and art collectives from both Taiwan and abroad, spanning different generations since the 1960s, in a rumination on movement, lines, and the quest to overcome humanity’s dilemmas. Featuring a wide variety of media, objects and texts, it seeks to be a “walking (doing) exhibition,” opening up a conversation with visitors at a variety of levels.

The exhibition takes place in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. In it, “walking” serves as the conceptual starting point, “crack” alludes to the contemporary state of constant struggle, and “walking the crack” suggests the search for possible paths to a solution. Human life began with walking, and humans developed language to communicate with one another. As walking and language co-evolved, they endowed cities and cultures with rich imagery. In the exhibition, “crack” also implies a double meaning – an experience of walking in a space, and the possibility of thinking innovatively to overcome our conundrums. The lines and lattices formed in “Walking the Crack” connect art with daily life, artists with viewers, artworks with spaces. The viewing and reading of the exhibition are drawn together into a cycle, which implies the cycle of birth and perishing.

Among many other works, the exhibition includes the paintings of Hilo Chen, placed throughout the exhibition. Depicting such themes as walking, dialogue and interaction, they imply the concept of “between.” In the video work Touch, Janine Antoni engages with the horizon by walking a tightrope. She says, “I wanted to walk in this impossible place, to walk on the line of my vision, or along the edge of my imagination.” In Taipei Note: 2011.11.19-2011.11.28 by Pak Sheung Chuen, lively short sentences composed in diary form are scattered in fragments in inconspicuous spots throughout the space, inviting viewers to search and imagine as they roam the exhibition.

“Walking the Crack”

Time: September 8, 2022 to January 8, 2023

Place: Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Galleries 2A & 2B

Press kit available here: https://reurl.cc/RXk6og

Source: Taipei Fine Arts Museum