BOOM AND BUST
JOINT EXHIBITION BY CHRISTIAN NICOLAY AND KANG YA-CHU

In 2012, artists Christian Nicolay and Kang Ya-chu co-created a video work “Recoil”, which was exhibited at “Made in Taiwan—Young Artist Discovery” of Taipei International Art Fair (Art Taipei 2012), and the Canadian art galleries Headbones Gallery, Elliott Louis Gallery and Maple Ridge Art Gallery.  The video won the “Judges Award—Make It Short” at the North American Film Centre in Portland, Oregon, USA in the same year.  In September 2013, “Recoil” entered the finalist list of SESIFF: the 5th Seoul International Extreme-Short Image and Film Festival, Seoul Korea.  In the video, the two artists puncture colored balloons in front of them — because of the recoil (release of an air jet from the bursting balloon), as well as their different personalities and the unpredictable manner of the burst, the artists react distinctively.  Christian Nicolay and Kang Ya-chu then extended the idea to create the new video installation work ”Wave Cycle” (《循環作用》), in which subjects from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Canada puncture a balloon in front of them.  The balloon’s inflation and its bursting symbolize rapid, excessive borrowing and investment in the stock market, which inevitably leads to a bubble economy and its subsequent bursting.  Art Experience Gallery is pleased to present “Boom and Bust”, an exhibition programme revolving around the unpredictability and fragility of the inter-connected global market system and economic cycles.

Taiwanese artist Kang Ya-chu is a master’s degree graduate of the Applied Art Graduate Institute of Tainan National University of the Arts and she graduated from the Sculpture Department of National Taiwan University of Arts.  She majored in fiber art and has artistic residency experience in different countries.  Her works mainly explore the link between subjective and social values.  She is known for her mastery of everyday trivial objects as the creative medium, which she incorporates in satirical views and personal experience with the intention of re-conceptualization.  In this coming exhibition, Kang Ya-chu will debut her “Fortune Pets” (《時運寵兒》) collection.  “Fortune Pets” depicts spoiled pets dressed in human clothing, a personified approach to reflect how people let out the stress of modern life.  Kang Ya-chu dresses the Wall Street bull, an icon of the American financial industry, in clothes made with salvaged money bags.  The bulls are playful in their gestures.  They seem to be mocking at the public’s enthusiasm for the stock market.

Canadian artist Christian Nicolay graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Okanagan University College.  He is concerned with the systematic chaos in today’s society where all things have their opposing sides.  His creative focus underscores a try to reproduce the paradox in daily life, usually by using found and salvaged materials, regarding the disregarded.  In this coming exhibition, Christian Nicolay will showcase his “Made in China” artwork. The work portrays a black hand holding a napkin which indeed is the American flag, rolled up with salvaged disposable plastic utensils. Through “Made in China”, the artist is making an ironic expression of the situation where numerous jobs are outsourced to China and consumerism has resulted in an overwhelming use of plastics.

The central theme of “Boom and Bust” is set on the ups and downs of the global economic cycle and all the works in the exhibition are locked into such.  So, Christian Nicolay’s collection, ”Boom and Bust: a Speculative Approach to Solving Problems”, mixed media graphic works, is created by, first, completing the drawing on wood and acrylic boards separately, then, putting abundant paint on to the wood board, and finally, press-combining the two materials.  This creative process simulates the economic cycle that features a constant interchange of “boom and bust”.  The bonding action led to an irregular outward burst of the paint between the two boards, whose directions and manners were simply beyond prediction.  Furthermore, Kang Ya-chu’s 3-dimensional installation “Out of Breath” stages an extended exploration of the detailed phenomenon of “Wave Cycle”.  “Out of Breath” features 21 identical masks with a flattened or inflated balloon hanging from their mouth parts; obviously, the masks fail to inflate the balloons.  This is comparable to people’s inability to cope with the changing society and the volatile, cannibalistic financial world.  The 21 masks are divided into 3 groups of 7, representing 3 series distinguishable by globes of differing colors, materials and appearances.  Following a 7-day cycle, each of these masks tells a particular emotion, industry and socio-economic and political setting.

People now live in a highly globalized era. The politics and economics of countries are inter-dependent.  Financial crisis cannot be contained; rather, it will certainly spread around the world.  “Boom and Bust” attempts to mirror the vulnerability in such economic entwinement and the balance between the recoil forces of economic “boom and bust”.  The approach adopted is simple and humorous; yet, a serious topic is being discussed and queries are thrown out.  In between absurdity and reality, we live in a world where the rational and irrational interact, fragile but unbreakable.

For more information, please contact us via art@artexperiencegallery.com or call 2110-9928.