Born in 1995, Shih Meng Hsin was selected and bestowed with the highest honor of the “2020 Kaohsiung Award”. The artist will present his debut solo show at Michael Ku Gallery.

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The sun sets and the city slips into the earth’s shadow. A shadow so dense it obscures my vision and distorts my sense of distance. I cannot tell what is before nor behind me. 

Outdoor AC compressor units, barber shop pole lights, corrugated roofing, turbine vents… These urban essentials are often hidden from our sight. They exist incongruously on edges of buildings, working tirelessly at the periphery. I utilize these objects in my work as an attempt to alter the sense of space inside a gallery, transforming the white cube into a night scene of architecture exteriors.    

The lamp posts with yellow bulbs signify an entrance as well as an exit. Entering the exhibition space on the fourth flour, viewers are invited by the gesture of these lamps to access “the outdoors” at 19:00. One may observe various happenings there – the AC units running, an assortment of artificial lights glowing, and air currents flowing.

This body of work is inspired by underappreciated objects in our everyday life. The turbine vent spins and activates the barbershop pole lights, the AC compressors hum as the digital bonfire sets a corner space aglow, and the butterfly flies at a constant speed while the urinating cherub turns his back on us at the stroke of 19:00. These objects operate independently in the outdoor space I created inside the gallery, their appearance and functionality reconfigured and transformed, composing a vignette of the familiar and the strange.