Photographer Lee Chia-yu (李佳佑) will hold a month-long exhibition in Russia, marking him as the first-ever Taiwanese artist to hold a solo show at the State Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow.
Titled "Wang Liang (罔兩)” — a reference to "shadows of a shadow” — the show will run from March 10 through April 8. It is based a concept that the artist borrowed from the classic Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (莊子), in which the corporeal world lends its weight to the shadows, yet from shadows arise half-shadows, i.e. the titular "Wang Liang.”
The underlying questions probed by Zhuangzi are the enigmas of existence: what supports the existence of this world, how much of that feeds into the creation of shadows and their shadows, and what constitutes originality.
Lee seeks to replicate the shadow of shadows by making photography without cameras. By placing objects on film in the darkroom, the contours are preserved with a flash of light. All 33 items in this series were made in this manner.
In the artist's own words, the "Wang Liang” tells the illusion of existence, in which real objects make their presence known through absence, for "what were shot are not important anymore … the only reality of the works exists within the process of identification.”
‘Wang Liang'
