Sublime Project
The public program of X-site 2024

Program Planning, Public Program

Yu-Tzu Huang, from the X-site winning team organized Sublime Project, a public program of five events during Analogue Forest in Taipei Fine Arts Museum from 11 May to 22 July, 2024.

Inspired by Scenery near Yuan-Shan (1928) by Hsueh-Hu Kuo. Through site visits to Jiantanshan and the former Taiwan Grand Shrine, the team explored the painting’s ‘orderliness’ via visual, sound, and bodily expressions. Three artists led a field study, culminating in events: Learn from Forest (group study), Prologue (performance), Sketch from Forest (workshops), Listen from Forest (sound performance), and Talk from Forest (discussions). These experiences echo Analogue Forest, evoking a sensory journey through nature.

↑‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ (1928) painted by Hsueh-Hu Kuo (1908-2012) Photo credit by Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Educatiion used.

Concept

Inspired by the painting ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ (1928) by Hsueh-Hu Kuo (1908-2012) of the TFAM collection, the winning team of X-site organized the public program of five events entitled Sublime Project during the exhibition period of Analogue Forest. The team attempts to conduct an on-site study–returning to the original sites such as the Jiantanshan Hiking Trail and Taiwan Grand Shrine (now the Grand Hotel), and analogously identifies or establishes, by visual expression, sound creation, and corporal sensation, the ‘orderliness’ in the natural landscape illustrated in the painting. ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ pivots on the public program which encourages a ‘group study in the field’ as the first step of enlightenment. Three invited artists of different disciplines will launch a field study to observe from various perspectives of art and to elaborate on the following events: natural nutrients cultivated from a ‘group study in the field’ in ‘Learn from forest’; opening performance as indicated in ‘Prologue’; workshops of symbolized vision in ‘Sketch form forest’; sound performance as visualized sound in ‘Listen from forest’, and talks on the subject of forest empathy in ‘Talk from forest’. The different types of events echo the concept of analogy to a forest in Analogue Forest and deduce the somatosensory memory and spatial experience during a promenade in the woods.

Learn from forest −Wood from the other side of the bridge

Hosted by Taiwan Nature Trail Society

‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ (1928) painted by Hsueh-Hu Kuo (1908-2012) in the TFAM collection dominates the overall program. Starting from the original site of the Jiantanshan Hiking Trail depicted in the painting, the invited artists will translate and create the fruits of the on-site survey from diverse artistic perspectives. The public is invited to join the team of Analogue Forest, departing from the TFAM plaza to take a closer look at the Meiji Bridge (now Zhongshan Bridge) and Taiwan Grand Shrine (now Grand Hotel) and then returning to the Jiantanshan woodland, mixing with non-/natural elements. The itinerary offers an opportunity to compare the ancient and modern rural landscapes in ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ with a nearly hundred-year history. Through a guided tour of the history of humanities and natural features, the two forests are aligned with each other. The promenade allows the public to experience the conceptual threads of the artists in creation.

↑The sketch of Prologue
Illustration by Yu-Tzu Huang

Prologue – no forest, no word, no whisper

Hosted by visual artist Yu-Tzu Huang & sound artist Yu-Jung Chen

Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent
Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité,
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté,
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se répondent.

Correspondances
Charles Baudelaire, 1821-1867

In “Prologue” as an opening prelude, the visual artist Yu-Tzu Huang and sound artist Yu-Jung Chen take as a text of inspiration ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ by Hsueh-Hu Kuo and conduct a field survey on the now Jiantanshan Hiking Trail illustrated in the painting. In tune with the poem ‘Correspondances’ by C. Baudelaire, the artists explore the boundary between nature and non-nature with sounds as the overture, paired with a mirror installation, and with luminous ink to replace traditional ink in terms of material culture. They observe and perceive from different artistic perspectives, mixing the symbols of writing, improvisation, and disturbance to present an amalgam of light, color, and sound, so that viewers can return, either intentionally or unintentionally, to the forest in their minds.

↑The sketch of Sketch from forest
Illustration by Yu-Tzu Huang

Sketch from forest – Place of reflection

Hosted by visual artist Yu-Tzu Huang

In the workshop, the visual artist Yu-Tzu Huang will employ the symbols in ‘Scenery near Yuan-Shan’ to create a realm of its own, from which are pre-made the templates like a book of model paintings. She will work with the participants to transform non-physical things in nature and further propose the question: “When a forest fostered by nature turns into one intervened by social consciousness, does such a forest still exist?” The workshop features contemporary ink as a dominant technique, handmade writing tools, and mirror acrylic sheets and luminous ink replacing traditional canvas and ink. The handcrafted output implemented through the body is not only an improvised creation but part of body memory. Finally, taking advantage of the particularity of luminous ink in different spectra, the participants will create the difference between day and night in the forest, and reflect on their relationship with the forest.

↑The sketch of Listen from forest
Illustration by Yu-Tzu Huang

Listen from forest – Soundscape reimagined in the memory

Hosted by sound artist Yu-Jung Chen

The sound artist Yu-Jung Chen collects numerous natural sounds to reconstruct the narratives of distinct sounds. He wonders “how the familiar soundscape in daily life provokes a new imagination of auditory experiences, through different listening methods and changes in the experience of corporal perceptions.” The artist encodes the sound archives, using multi-channel speakers to simulate the diversity and directionality of natural sounds in interaction with the on-site installation. In the current project, “delay” serves as the core concept of sound creation. It takes advantage of the characteristics of echo and reverberation in sound technology, digitally processing the sounds from the natural ecosystem with about 30-40 small speakers hidden in Analogue Forest. Through the abstract reconstruction of the sounds, the event guides visitors to re-experience the spatial field and itinerary constructed by the soundscape.

↑The sketch of Talk from forest
Illustration by Yu-Tzu Huang

Talk from forest – I am a moving tree

Hosted by visual artist Ju-An Hsieh

“I will walk into a forest to let myself melt into it, my body and senses flow among the trees and sway with the wind, and then become them momentarily."

by visual artist Ju-An Hsieh

In recent years, the visual artist Ju-An Hsieh has eagerly visited different natural habitats through overseas travel and residence programs. She’s lived with plants and transformed what she saw and felt into works. In this talk, she will read aloud her notes of creation and share her stories of roaming in the forest and creation during the residence programs in the Netherlands, Estonia, Iceland, Taiwan, Japan, and other places.

The form of the talk is inspired by the allusions in Aranyaka (Book of the Forest) from the Vedic era in India, which describes the elderly hermits living in the forest, replacing traditional sacrifices as a ritual with meditation–a thought combining ideas from religion, philosophy, and mysticism. In the event, the artist will write long prose about her creation experiences in diverse residence programs and turn it into “a handmade book presented through reading”. Meanwhile, the images and manuscripts of creation during her journeys will be displayed on the screen.

In the last five minutes of the talk, the artist will also share with visitors a sound work based on the concept of “sacred trees” that she created during ART ITOYA (residence program) in Japan.

(Text translated by LIN Chih-Chung)

X-site 2024 Winning Team
Design Team | office one senses (OOS)
Architecture Design | CHENG Hao-Chung, CHIOU Yuan-Fu, CHANG Po-Yun, CHEN Szu-AnArt Planning & Visual Design | HUANG Yu-Tzu
Structure Consultant | Jun Yanagimuro

Public Program
Planning | Studio PHOENIXMINUSONE, HUANG Yu-Tzu
Opening Performance | HUANG Yu-Tzu, CHEN Yu-Jung
Learn from Forest | Taiwan Nature Trail Society
Sketch from Forest | HUANG Yu-Tzu
Listen from Forest | CHEN Yu-Jung
Talk from Forest | CHEN Ju-An
Lighting for opening ceremony | Hispot Workshop Translator | LIN Chih-Chung Program Documentary & Photo Recording | Atelier YenAn Videographer｜Jun-Siang Yang, Sung Hsin
Photography｜Yen-An Chen, Jun-Siang Yan Photo Recording of #1-2 | Yu-Tzu HuangPhoto Credit | Studio PHOENIXMINUSONE