Norwegian Music in Dutch Window
Evelyn Taocheng Wang's very first solo exhibition in Japan.
Characterized by her vast approach in art--from paintings to performances, installations and calligraphy--with broad themes as appropriation on traditional Chinese painting, feminine temperament and cultural identity, Dutch-based Chinese-born artist Evelyn Taocheng Wang, unfolds a scene of boundless interpretation through her recent series of multi-layered intricate portrayals of windows in Norwegian Music in Dutch Window.
Windows, specifically Dutch Windows, used as architectural reference, possess great significance to Evelyn and her works as they and the sceneries which lie before them have been a symbolic view on numerous occasions throughout her life. Evelyn renders her Windows through mere memory and metaphysical existences, as she values impressions to be an alternative in observing our hyper-consumed and visible world of today. (1)
Immersing in rich art history and their traditions, and having experienced herself as a minority--sexually, ethinacally, socio-economically--she finds the concept of identity and image to be of substantial interest. Evelyn's conscious presentation of material, thin strokes, and playful manner; along with alignments and compositions of language--as like the words within her works, as well as titles which carry idiosyncratic grammar and poetic humor (2)--carefully deliver her pressures and insecurities in the world around her.
Evelyn also explores the idea of oneself with her use of multiple media--regarding each medium to be of a single identity--coming to challenge their boundaries, and to accept their coexistence.
For this exhibit, Evelyn claims to share a story. One, which may not perhaps provide a clear and precise answer, but would hope to function as like a piece of Buddhist Koan, or poetic haiku. And although Evelyn does not pose a fixed meaning for her works, with her underlying question of the self projected onto her consecutive series of Dutch Windows, she may be encouraging the audience to take a moment to reflect upon their subtle daily encounters of people, things, words and contexts, such as Norwegian Music, and to listen to their sincere tunes, perhaps as a window to a more insightful understanding of oneself.
1. Isabel Parkers. Who Is the Master?: On Evelyn Taocheng Wang's process of observation, error, and transformation. Art Basel.
2. Carlo Prada. (April 21, 2017). Rising Artist to Watch: Evelyn Taocheng Wang. Conceptual Fine Arts.
Evelyn Taocheng Wang (China 1981, lives and works in Rotterdam) studied painting in China before attending the Städelschule, Frankfurt. From 2012-2014 she was a resident artist at De Ateliers, Amsterdam. She has won the ABN AMRO Art Award (2019) and Dolf Henkes Prize (2019) as well as the Dorothea von Stetten Award and the Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prize (both 2016). She has had solo shows at Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany; Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany; Hermitage Amsterdam, The Netherlands; KevinSpace, Vienna, Austria; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France; KW – institute for contemporary art, Berlin, Germany; Frans Hals Museum | Hallen Haarlem, The Netherlands. She has participated in Manifesta 11, Zurich, Switzerland; as well as groupshows Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; WIELS, Brussels, Belgium and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands; The Kitchen, New York, United States ofAmerica. Her performances have been presented at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany. Wang’s work has been collected by the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, United States; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Netherlandsand; FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France; and Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach, Germany.
