MAO Bodhisattva Guanyin, 2022
Single Channel Video · duration 6'30''
The concept of the Drawing Study Series originated in 2010 during Wu Chi-Tsung’s residency in Manchester, U.K. Fascinated by the dialectical tension between temporality and eternity in time, he has been experimenting with various video shooting techniques since college. However, it was not until 2021 did he finally develop a real-time image processing system that could process frames in the image in real time during recording, and accumulate the variations frame by frame, so as a linear development of time is recorded and presented. Hence, the boundary between photography and painting is blurred, and a unique visual experience in-between dynamic and static is achieved as if physical thickness were added to time. In 2021, while visiting the TAO ART SPACE, Wu Chi-Tsung was captivated by the Buddhist statues from the gallery’s HU BU TANG Collection of antiques. The eternal beauty of the statues sparked him to apply the concept and techniques that had long been incubating in his mind. Similar to how he made use of the light to develop images on films in “Self-Portrait” (2004), Wu Chi-Tsung once again uses a flashlight as a paintbrush to capture the silhouette of the statues and records the tails of light in space, allowing the outlines of the Buddhist statues to gradually appear. The gentle movement and the dim glow have created a yūgenism (profound grace and subtlety) atmosphere, symphonizing the timeless quality of the statues that were created centuries ago. Wu Chi-Tsung also applied the same video technique to the daily city scenes in Taipei and the oceanic scenery at Longdong in northern Taiwan. By setting various parameters to adjust respectively the transparency and the lightness of the images, the artist has skillfully played with the video shooting process as a record of time, transforming into a process that is similar to painting, having lights layered on.