Chinese American Arts Council/Gallery 456 is pleased to present Poyen Wang: Endearing Insanity on view from February 24, 2023 through March 17, 2023.
Endearing Insanity features Poyen Wang’s latest video work of the same title, a 9-minute film using 3D Computer graphics, alongside a series of still images derived from the film.
The centerpiece film is punctuated by mundane words of self-introduction, sensual but eerie bodily gestures, and dramatic sound effects, reflecting the longing for connection and the desire for visibility within a displaced environment.
The film takes place in a small apartment kitchen which references where the artist once lived in Brooklyn, New York. A seemingly ragged protagonist constrained in various enclosed spaces such as a cabinet, microwave, and sink, performs a monologue waiting for someone to visit. The spoken words are composed of found text from online message boards, hovering between sincerity and absurdity. A collage of sounds including liquid, wind, and drums suggests an unstable state and enhances the theatrical tension of everyday life.
Employing the genres of horror and erotica, Endearing Insanity navigates the threshold where sensuality and terror meet. By utilizing the sensual as a tool, the protagonist calls the viewer to enter their intimate realm, gaining agency in the displaced environment. The work embraces contradictory ideas, dissolving boundaries and oscillating between the seductive and the repellant, the private and the public, and the self and the other.
* Chinese American Arts Council’s Gallery 456 Visual Arts Exhibition Series is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Exhibition Dates
February 24 – March 17, 2023
Opening Reception
Friday, 5-7 PM, February 24, 2023
Venue
Gallery 456
456 Broadway, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013
Elevator Accessible
Contact
For more information, please visit:
About Artist
Poyen Wang is an artist and filmmaker, born and raised in Taiwan and currently based in New York City. His recent practice employs world-building through 3D computer graphics to create narratives that grapple with issues of identity, sexuality and masculinity. He has had solo exhibitions at the Taipei Digital Art Center, Taiwan; 18th Street Arts Center, Los Angeles; Flux Factory, New York; and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. His work was recently exhibited in Bronx Calling: The Fifth AIM Biennial at the Bronx Museum of the Arts in New York, and will be included in VIDEONALE.19 – Festival for Video and Time-Based Art at Kunstmuseum Bonn in Germany. He is currently teaching at Hunter College and Pratt Institute in New York City.
About Gallery
Gallery 456 is the visual arts exhibition space of the Chinese American Arts Council. Open to the public during office hours and by appointment, over three decades our non-profit gallery has presented works by more than 250 renowned and emerging artists from around the world, with an emphasis on contemporary artists of Chinese heritage.
Our 700 square foot gallery presents eight to twelve solo and group shows each year, along with periodic special events and arts-related programming. Our primary mission is to provide a non-commercial NYC exhibition opportunity to contemporary artists of Chinese or other Asian heritage, both local and international. We present works from emerging as well as more established artists representing a range of styles.
The gallery is run by CAAC Founder and Director Alan Chow with visual arts programming by Szu-Wei Ho.
(text & photo courtesy of Chinese American Arts Council/Gallery 456)
