TRANSISTORS × Contemporary Art: MoCA Taipei

With nearly 100 million transistors in our phones and billions in our computers, transistors are the crucial building blocks in nearly every electronic device we use. Through their semiconducting, they control the generation and flow of electric current, the irrefutable lifeblood of modern life, and the energy conduit of our civilization. Most alarmingly, they work without human control, and regardless of type or usage, once powered, transistors allow the free, automatic flow of energy information.

With energy-generating transistors as an analogy, this exhibition focuses on the receiving and converting of creative energies demonstrated by the artworks on view, with visible and profound landscapes of art created through the use of different living species or even abiotic data signals as carriers.

The works presented can be seen as cultural transistors that reveal multi-dimensional explorations of our current human conundrums, including explorations about our origin (Chang Yung-Ta, Liu Yu, Lin Pei-Ying); our place and collective identity in society (Hsu Chia-Wei, Chu Chun-Teng); the anxiety and hilarity of our own social and technological creations (Chang Ting-Tong, Cheng Hsien-Yu, Lee Ming-Hsueh); our unshakable beliefs (Shi Jin-Hua); our fluid hesitancy with value boundaries (Hung-Chih Peng); and our optimism towards the future (Royce YC Hong). Through the unique vision of each artist, these explorations are transformed into compelling ideas of us, our society, and our civilization.

The exhibition, Transistors, is like a colossal energy installation where a diverse range of particles congregate, and through collision, entanglement, or mutual infiltration, it breaks through the limitations of form and discipline with the use of tangible scales or intangible signals. The pioneering spirit that the exhibition seeks to convey is unbounded by any form of the norm and is capable of connecting with different disciplines and allowing them to become mutually complementary. Meanwhile, as we look towards the future, an energy hub that belongs to cultural creators with original ideas is established.

The imaginations and original creativities that this energy hub is composed of are the essential building blocks of our collective consciousness. Transcending beyond medium, classifications, and boundaries, once initiated, energy and information will flow freely and break free from the reign of human control, with the world propelled towards a future that’s unknown and boundless.

Artists:

SHI Jin-Hua, CHU Chun-Teng, LEE Ming-Hsueh, LIN Pei-Ying, Royce YC Hong, CHANG Yung-Ta, CHANG Ting-Tong, HSU Chia-Wei, Hung-Chih PENG, LIU Yu, CHENG Hsien-Yu