Now Open: Juming Museum launches large-scale group exhibition "Fang Wu", exploring a redefinition of the identity of Asian contemporary sculpture

Organised by Juming Museum, "Fang Wu - Asian Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition" has opened on 13 September and will be on display until 12 January 2025. Co-curated by LIU Chu-Lan (Taiwan) and CHOI Tae Man (South Korea), the exhibition features 20 artists from across Asia, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, China, and Hong Kong. "Fang Wu" focuses on the concept of "matters" and explores the different meanings of "material" from the past, as well as the latent revelations and new perspectives they may offer.
Founded by the important Taiwanese sculptor JU Ming (1938-2023), the Juming Museum is located in Jinshan, Taipei, Taiwan, occupying over 11 hectares. It stands as one of Taiwan's significant art institutions. Since its opening in 1999, the Museum has been dedicated to collecting, researching, and promoting sculpture art. It regularly organises sculpture-themed exhibitions, forums, workshops, and children's education programmes. In March 2023, the Museum established the Research Centre for Contemporary Taiwanese Sculpture to deepen its contribution to the development of modern and contemporary sculpture art in Taiwan. In 2024, the museum further launched major exhibition programmes focusing on "Contemporary Taiwanese Sculpture" and "International Sculptural Art", actively expanding international partnerships to foster more dialogues and exchanges.
Juming Museum states, "this exhibition is an important large-scale group exhibition that the museum has ever hosted, bringing together artists from the largest number of nationalities, signifying a milestone. Through the wonderful works of artists from all over Asia, in addition to presenting a multicultural art feast to the audience, it also demonstrates the museum's determination to actively promote global art exchanges and create international influence. In the future, Juming Museum will continue to be committed to promoting sculpture art, providing a platform for more outstanding domestic and foreign artists, and bringing a richer artistic experience to the audience."
Reflecting on the materials of sculpture from a "local" perspective
The Chinese term "方物/ Fāng Wù," originating from ancient texts, initially referred to local products and carried connotations of description and identification. Drawing from this concept, the exhibition explores new perspectives on materials from a "local" standpoint, grounded in the principle of decentralisation. The heterogeneity, complexity, and dynamism of "locality"-encompassing natural resources, ecological environments, traditional knowledge, historical culture, and social life-open up multiple pathways for the in-depth exploration and practice of materials. This multifaceted perspective paves the way for the development of new artistic concepts.
Chinese artist FU Zhong- Wang's "The Great Woodwork" is a sculptural installation that amalgamates numerous components from traditional wooden architecture, especially the "mortise and tenon" joint. This work challenges our understanding of the inheritance of traditional wisdom and interrogates the past and present of material culture. Taiwanese artist LIU Po-Chun presents "A Smelting World". Using iron as his primary creative medium, LIU reinterprets meteorites in this work, further extending his series of creations that dialogue with Taiwan's prehistoric iron-smelting civilisation. This work embodies humanity's minute existence whilst allegorically merging human and non-human worlds. Hong Kong artist SO Wing Po, hailing from a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, created "Emission" using the medicinal plant Burma creeper. Through this, SO explores the intertextuality between humans and plants, suggesting the relativity and delicate balance within the survival systems of all living things.
The work "Translated Vase" by South Korean artist Yeesookyung uses the traditional "Kintsu" repair technique to fuse and reassemble the porcelain fragments with pure gold, exploring the possible resurrection and mutated development of cultural traditions. "Seeping Forest" by artist KIM Yujung, also from South Korea, presents rootless plants spreading across indoor walls, metaphorising the parasitic and dominant relationships between nature and humans. Inspired by the traditional Indonesian shadow puppet theatre, "Wayang Kulit", the Indonesian artist Heri DONO uses simple kinetic sculptural installations to reveal the violence and warfare perpetrated by humanity. DONO's "Genetic Manipulation" explores the potential impacts and risks that clones, cyborgs, and genetic modification pose to civilisation.
Curator LIU Chu Lan said, "the exhibition encourages a re-examination of materials, not merely viewing them as a medium or material, but as entities with their own agency. This thinking responds to New Materialism, a material theory that critiques anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene discourse. However, the exhibition seeks to deconstruct and re-examine the hierarchy and logic between humans and matters. Through this perspective, 'Fang Wu' aims to highlight the inherent relativity of all existences, and the unique 'locality' of Asia and the significance of 'trans-locality', thereby exploring a redefinition of the identity of Asian contemporary sculpture."
In addition to the exhibition, the museum will also launch a series of workshops and activities specially designed for audiences of all ages during the exhibition period from 13 September to 12 January 2025. For more information, please visit Juming Museum Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/jumingmuseum
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Fang Wu - Asian Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition
Exhibition Period: 13 September 2024 - 12 January 2025
Venue: Juming Museum (2, Xishihu, Jinshan Dist., New Taipei City)
Curators: CHOI Tae Man, LIU Chu Lan
Participating Artists: CHAN Shin-Tai (Taiwan), CHEN Shu-yen (Taiwan), Heri DONO (Indonesia), FU Zhong Wang (China), FX HARSONO (Indonesia), KIM Dabal (South Korea), KIM Yujung (South Korea), KISHI Kaoru (Japan), LEE James Ming-Hsueh (Taiwan), LIU Po-Chun (Taiwan), LO Yi-Chun (Taiwan), OHMAKI Shinji (Japan), SHIN Meekyoung (South Korea), SO Wing Po (Hong Kong), SUNG Dong-Hun (South Korea), TORIMITSU Momoyo (Japan), YANG Wei-Lin (Taiwan), Yeesookyung (South Korea), Pannaphan YODMANEE (Thailand), YUON Kibaik (South Korea)

Ju Ming Museum
20842 No.2, Xishihu, Jinshan Dist., New Taipei City, Taiwan R.O.C.
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The museum is Ju Ming's largest artwork to date. He personally designed the architecture, landscapes, wirings and plumbing. Not only did he purchase the property to build the museum, but he also donated over 2000 pieces of his own works and personal collection to the museum for the public to view. Starting from the ground up, it took Ju Ming 12 years to finish the construction work and he had turned a vacant land into a sculpture park. The museum officially opened in 1999, planting the seeds of art in the soil of Taiwan.
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This release was published on openPR.