Did You Know That … ?
- Chiu started out as an ambitious cartoonist who wanted to create comics that reflect the lives of regular people in Taiwan. An eight-page comic on a self-sacrificing mouse and another series on talking dogs, however, ran amok of censorship and he decided to give up drawing comics despite two decades of work in the field.
- Pavers working with asphalt drew Chiu's attention when he went out for a stroll one day, and he collaborated with researcher Kuo Tsung-tien to find a way to transform the road-building material to an artistic medium. The key turned out to be hot glue, rather like how glue is used as an adhesive in eastern gouache.
- The unbridled quality of asphalt, combined with its three-dimensional appearance, has led Chiu to create visages that are as light as the wing of a cicada and as heavy as rolling storm clouds.
Read more about the artist here or scroll down for pictures.
One of the reoccurring themes in Chiu’s pieces is Bodhidharma (達摩), who is credited as the transmitter of Zen.
Using the same subject to chart his progress, Chiu practices different techniques for depicting Bodhidharma, whether it's a sheet of asphalt for beard, or threads for eyebrows.
Social or political satire is another lasting theme in Chiu’s works, be it a comic piece or large asphalt paintings. One of his popular paintings shows a group of frog-looking figures snatching at New Taiwan Dollar bills.
Noting how for thousands of years paintings have been limited inside a frame, Chiu purposefully paints over the picture frame. For example, in one painting the frog-like figures latch onto the frame with their hands and feet.
Asphalt can be layered so that up to ten layers could still be distinguished clearly, unlike Chinese ink, oil paints, or other materials of the same color and saturation.
By removing the usual boundaries of visual art, Chiu maximizes the potential of asphalt as an art medium, especially its fluidity and its thickness.
