The Gesture of Being
Background
The Gesture of Being is a group exhibition at ALIEN Art Centre in Kaohsiung, featuring five artists: Tsai Chia-Wei, Shih Jin-Hua, Chang En-Man, Yeh Wei-Li, and Lee Shou-Jing. Starting from the idea of “writing,” the exhibition explores how artists use the hand, body, and materials to leave traces of time, action, and memory. The works go beyond words and lines, turning personal experiences and perceptions of life, identity, and the world into visual forms.
Concept Development
As four of the five artists are Traditional Chinese-language users, I decided with the curator to make Chinese character the main focus of the visual identity.
The bold text 「存在的手勢」 in the background appears in both clear and blurred states, responding to the recurring idea of “being / not being.” A second layer of handwritten text is placed over the bold type to express the idea of “gesture.” Gesture refers both to physical movement and to artistic expression or statement.
↑ Chinese c
From a distance, the overlapping text forms a large and dense shape, like layers of time and labour built up over time. Up close, the text becomes loose, floating, and undefined.
Bringing the practices of five artists together is also a form of rewriting. The texts overlap, creating new errors, projections, and interpretations through each act of looking and reading.
