Mind Set Art Center launched the solo exhibition "SHI Jin-Hua Solo Exhibition - Pass Through A Year". This is the first solo exhibition of a Taiwanese artist that Mind Set Art Center has presented since its establishment a year and a half ago. It is also an apt portrayal of our continued efforts to learn how to walk steadily and collaborate and inspire with the artist.
"SHI Jin-Hua Solo Exhibition - Pass Through A Year" is an exhibition curated by Ying-Ti LEE and tailor-made for the Xinsheng 16 Space by the artist Shi Jin-Hua. The exhibition presents 13 works that integrate the artist's personal life experience and the passage of time, including "Pen Walking" drawings and poetry representing the 12 months, as well as the 13th piece "Pass Through A Year" symbolizing the entire year. These fascinating conceptual drawings and poems, combining intellect and emotion, explore the flow of time: stars in January, hearts in February, rain in March, snow in April, ruins in May, painkillers in June, wind and rain in July, medicine boxes in August, solitary islands in September, empty mountains in October, water waves in November, and the end of the year in December.
"Pass Through A Year" is the complete exhibition that includes the 12 "Pen Walking" images mentioned above. In this work, Shi will use a pencil to draw lines around the exhibition space walls in several circles, and glue the pencil shavings onto the wall during the process. The pencil tails and shavings will be collected in a glass jar as a documentation of the work. At the same time, the artist will continuously record all the strokes with a camera as another part of the work. In the gallery, the exhibition walls become an extension of Shi Jin-Hua's drawing paper, which not only records the life of the pencil but also evokes memories of the passing year for the artist and all viewers.
"Pen Walking" is the core series of artistic creations by Shi Jin-Hua. This series of works originated from a ballpoint pen his brother gave him - in 1994, when Shi was studying in the United States, he found that the pen he had carried with him for many years was about to run out of ink. He took out a piece of white paper and irregularly drew lines until the ink ran out - this is Shi's first "Pen Walking" work, "The Last Painting in Life". Later, using personification techniques, Shi wrote a poem about visiting a dying friend "Pen". He had to support him and help him paint his last painting in life. The strokes in the painting reveal their shared past experiences, plans, and even their innermost feelings... until the end, the end is the beginning, and he stops at the starting point, never moving again... This is the origin of the poem version of "The Last Painting in Life".
