Taiwanese artist Poyen Wang (王博彥), who will be a residency artist at Triangle Arts Association in New York, is holding a solo exhibition "Endearing Insanity." The exhibition is named after Wang's latest video work which is a 9-minute film using 3D computer graphics, alongside a series of still images derived from the film.
The centerpiece film is punctuated by mundane words of self-introduction, sensual but eerie bodily gestures, and dramatic sound effects, reflecting the longing for connection and the desire for visibility within a displaced environment. The film takes place in a small apartment kitchen which references where the artist once lived in Brooklyn, New York. A seemingly ragged protagonist constrained in various enclosed spaces such as a cabinet, microwave, and sink, performs a monologue waiting for someone to visit. The spoken words are composed of found text from online message boards, hovering between sincerity and absurdity. A collage of sounds including liquid, wind, and drums suggests an unstable state and enhances the theatrical tension of everyday life.
Employing the genres of horror and erotica, "Endearing Insanity" navigates the threshold where sensuality and terror meet. By utilizing the sensual as a tool, the protagonist calls the viewer to enter their intimate realm, gaining agency in the displaced environment. The work embraces contradictory ideas, dissolving boundaries and oscillating between the seductive and the repellant, the private and the public, and the self and the other.
Poyen Wang is an artist and filmmaker, born and raised in Taiwan and currently based in New York City. His recent practice employs world-building through 3D computer graphics to create narratives that grapple with issues of identity, sexuality and masculinity. He has had solo exhibitions at the Taipei Digital Art Center, Taiwan; 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles; Flux Factory, New York; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. His work was recently exhibited in Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, and will be included in VIDEONALE.19 – Festival for Video and Time-Based Art at Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany. He is currently teaching at Hunter College and Pratt Institute in New York City.