CHENG Dao-Yuan
Where End Is Silent
- 2022, single-channel video, five-channel sound
- Dimensions variable.
- Courtesy of the artist. Cast: Alysée Yin Chen.
Curatorial Perspective
A bridge across a courtyard is an unfamiliar link between existence and non-existence – floating, in emptiness. This artist attempts a back and forth of imagery, among sound, images, and space, echoing the structure of the venue and exploring the interplay and coexistence of front and back, up and down, past and future. Staggered, reverberating, and strange sounds tear at the anchoring points of the virtual and the real, as recurring absurd images reflect the start of the end. Cheng makes use of a multi-channel system he has studied in recent years to present his sound designs, experimenting with relationships between sound and space: variations in and blurring of sound textures and phases and compression and stacking of boundaries between texture and perception.
Creation Description
Where End is Silent is a mixed media work that was produced by Cheng Dao-Yuan for the “2022 Taiwan Art Biennial.” A bridge across a courtyard is an unfamiliar link between existence and non-existence – floating, in emptiness. This artist attempts a back and forth of imagery, among sound, images, and space, echoing the structure of the venue and exploring the interplay and coexistence of front and back, up and down, past and future. Staggered, reverberating, and strange sounds tear at the anchoring points of the virtual and the real, as recurring absurd images reflect the start of the end. Cheng makes use of a multi-channel system he has studied in recent years to present his sound designs, experimenting with relationships between sound and space: variations in and blurring of sound textures and phases and compression and stacking of boundaries between texture and perception. More than a reverse extension of the end, this video installation is like a door frame bound in reality. Using different methods to destroy and displace, Cheng then reconstructs the content of images, with contrast and reflection the main axes for expression. Driving the instinct for direction within the space, he elicits a dormant desire to move, leading to an opposing self-image in the end. Guided by sound and images, embodied cognition is established.
Work
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Where End Is Silent2022, single-channel video, five-channel sound, dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist. Cast: Alysée Yin Chen.
Artist Bio
Cheng Dao-Yuan is a multimedia artist based in Taipei, Taiwan. He explores the paradoxical yet co-existing relationship between the state of self-awareness and the nature of existence through different media such as experimental sound, video, and installation. The core of Cheng’s artistic practice is to incorporate the concept “there are two sides to every coin” into his artworks, in an attempt to present the philosophical idea of “all things are empty and all ends are beginning.”
He has been actively creating sound art and performing in the Taiwanese experimental noise art scene since 2015, including “Lacking Sound Festival” (2016, 2018), “Taipei Biennial ”(2018). In 2019, he performed overseas for the first time in Tokyo and released his debut album Apeiron at the end of the same year. Cheng’s recordings have been featured on numerous compilations released by labels locally and in the UK, Netherland and Portugal. In 2020, he performed at “Nexus Experience,” an online programme by MUTEK, and created his first 7.1 channel ambisonic sound design for the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. He presented INNERSTAR 01: Reddening, an immersive A/V work with Huang Wei at “FUTURE VISION LAB” at the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB) in 2021. Cheng is now the artist in residency at the “2020 CREATORS Sound Off Up-and-Coming Creators Residency Program” at C-LAB.
His installation works, such as ANTUMBRA and SCALAR, use sound as a base and combine projection, laser and interactive elements to explore new possibilities for dialogues in the space. Whereas his work PLEIADES have an on-site version and a live performing version which were presented separately at “ODD Institute” and Yao Chung-Han’s solo exhibition “I Feel the Space.” His experience in visual design in the experimental scenes for many years allows him to develop a unique style and presentation in the visual creations. In 2021, Cheng participated in a group exhibition “Fubar Expo 2021” online and at Institut français de Croatie, Zagreb with Trigger, Later in 2021. His latest artwork series TRIMESSIAH was exhibited in a virtual show room “Water Skin” at the virtual gallery of “Synergy Festival 2021.” His works have been featured in international media such as The WIRE, The QUIETUS, and published by Taiwan Beats and Electric Soul between 2018 and 2021.