Foreword

The solo exhibitions launched by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) in 2022 feature unique visual expressions created by four emerging artists, presenting experiences that engage with contemporary ways of thinking and diverse creative formats. “This Is A Complex Sentence.” is the solo exhibition of Ting-Jung Chen, who is currently based in Vienna, Austria. Extending from her long-term focus on the corresponding relationships between sound and systems of power, as well as between memory and identity, the exhibition examines texts of psychological and sonic warfare, and in reference to the binary of self/other, it also investigates the formation of tension, projection and discipline under the influence of affective (musical) tonality. Furthermore, the dialogue between silence and sound is also explored. After obtaining a degree in philosophy, Chen pursued further education in Europe, where her nostalgia prompted by being in a foreign place inspired her to explore the associations between sound and memory, as well as the ideological symbolism of sound. This solo exhibition departs from a solid foundation of research and investigation, presenting the ways that sound is used by the military as a weapon to engage in sonic warfare and shape identity. Inside the minimalistic exhibition space is a large-scale spatial installation comprising multi-channel sound, kinetic installation and sculpture, reorienting the viewer’s position within this fabricated info-sphere.

Members of the audience are asked to follow the instructions provided by the artist inside the seemingly quiet venue: they must exchange objects in order to receive a signal transmitter and a set of headphones, which they can then use to listen to a meticulously-designed, intimate broadcast. As the viewers roam freely inside the space, they physically enter and exit various soundscapes, where they can feel sentiments and memories converge and also diverge. Suddenly, an intense low-frequency sound is heard, prompting the audience to pause. A swaying gossamer curtain comes into view, giving the illusion that a gust of wind is sweeping in from  outside. A hanging piece of rock swings and smashes into the wall, the source of traces of rubble that have fallen and scattered on the floor. Chen engages in this exhibition space with elements of sound, sculpture and light, and what she has constructed is something that is at once raw and fabricated, elusive yet concrete. It raises questions and reflections of a philosophical nature. Displayed at the center of the space are archives about weapons, namely, program pamphlets and songbooks of the songs aired by Taiwan’s national broadcaster Radio Taiwan International (RTI) during the period of the so-called “Cross-Strait Psychological War.” The artist has cleverly positioned them directly across from Radio Taiwan International’s microwave relay station, its structure visible through the museum windows. This ten-part artwork of complex, multilayered connotations, evincing the artist’s background in philosophy, explores and investigates “sound” as a tool of identity-shaping and consensus-building, through which Chen decodes the collective sense of history and ideology behind “sound.” Creating plural narratives and alternative scales of space-time that resonate with the title of the exhibition, Chen’s endeavor is an exciting development for sound art in Taiwan.

Jun-Jieh Wang

Director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Foreword / Jun-Jieh Wang

The Dialectics of TING / Freda Fiala

The Complex Sentence in Ting-Jung Chen's “This Is A Complex Sentence.” / Pei-Chun Viola Hsieh

The Rhythm of History – Ting-Jung Chen's Solo Exhibitions / Chieh-Hsiang Wu

Biographies

Colophon