TAIPEI, Taiwan — What began as a way to survive has become the foundation of an award-winning artist’s most personal exhibition.
Taiwanese artist Chen Zhao-hua, winner of the 2023 Taipei Art Awards grand prize, is turning discarded machinery, workshop labor and years of financial struggle into a new five-installation exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM).
Titled “After the Taipei Art Awards,” the solo exhibition opens Sept. 25 and runs through Dec. 20, offering an unusually intimate look at the tension between pursuing art and simply making a living.
When Survival Became the Starting Point
Chen’s relationship with discarded materials began during his university years, when financial difficulties pushed him to collect unwanted items from the streets during student moving seasons.
Among the objects he dismantled were old refrigerators, dehumidifiers and water dispensers.
But one component repeatedly caught his attention: the compressor.
Even when the outer shell of an appliance was battered or destined for disposal, Chen noticed that the compressor inside often remained functional.
That contrast became central to his artistic thinking — an overlooked mechanism continuing to work inside something that appeared to have reached the end of its life.
The Compressor That Became a Symbol
Since 2018, Chen has used the compressor as an important symbol in his practice.
His installation “Elastic Love” uses a compressor’s cooling process to freeze condensation onto a suspended black flag until the surface becomes white.
The work plays with the visual idea of surrender and persistence: the flag appears to turn white as frost accumulates, then gradually returns to black as the frost melts.
The cycle reflects Chen’s description of repeatedly confronting the urge to give up while continuing to hold on.
The Hidden Cost of Chasing a Dream
Chen’s experience extends beyond scavenging materials.
For years, he worked as an artist’s assistant, fabricating hardware for other people’s projects.
The experience gave him technical skills, but also left him confronting a difficult question: what happens when an artist spends long days creating objects that ultimately belong to someone else?
That tension between craftsmanship, identity and survival runs through the new exhibition.
Five Installations, One Personal Story
The exhibition features five video and spatial installations accompanied by a dedicated soundtrack created with musician Tsai Chi-loh.
Another major work, “Keep Warm,” documents Chen burning timber from his 2023 Taipei Art Awards-winning project to heat his damp winter studio.
Rather than presenting the destruction simply as loss, Chen frames the act as a metaphor for using creative energy to confront difficult circumstances.
“A Good Night’s Sleep” brings the atmosphere of his workshop into the museum, combining physical labor with Tsai’s looping soundtrack.
Meanwhile, “A Special Love for Someone Special” uses a rocking chair and tree branches to explore anxiety and growth.
The exhibition also includes “What’s The Difference Between You and a Salted Fish?”, featuring a small handcrafted boat placed inside a dark, dripping environment resembling a ruin — an image of movement toward an uncertain destination.
From the Street to One of Taiwan’s Major Museums
Chen’s journey gives the exhibition its strongest narrative thread.
He went from collecting discarded materials because he needed them to survive, to turning those same experiences into a language for contemporary art.
Now, his work is being presented at one of Taiwan’s major art institutions after he won the grand prize at the 2023 Taipei Art Awards.
TFAM Director Luo Li-zhen said the museum aims to give award recipients opportunities for fuller creative expression, allowing emerging Taiwanese artists to develop their ideas beyond the competition itself.
Chen’s exhibition ultimately asks a larger question: What keeps an artist moving when ambition collides with the realities of everyday life?
His answer is not delivered through a single painting or sculpture, but through machines, discarded materials, physical labor, sound and spaces that recreate the uncertainty behind the finished artwork.
The artist who once searched the streets for usable scrap is now inviting museum visitors to see the world through the very materials others had thrown away.
WWC ONE MEDIA G,A
