Jr-Shin Luo

(Taiwan) b.1984

Lives and works in Taipei

Jr-Shin Luo creates works engaging with everyday objects that, when displaced from their typical context, “reproduce another kind of reality,” resulting in works that are humorous, engaging, and sentimental. He strives to encourage one to question, “Is this reality?” Luo projects common perceptions into his work and creates new versions of them, generating a strong connection between daily life and “magic moments.” Luo practices and experiments with how everyday objects can suddenly turn into sculptures.

For TB2014, Luo’s work, Terrarium, focuses principally on objects, infusing the relationships between them with transformational forms, symbolic personifications, and modes of objectification.

The principal element of Terrarium (Ong Lai) is lucky bamboo (Dracaena braunii), crafted into the shape of pineapples. Yet puzzlingly, despite resembling and being used as bamboo (which has a positive image in Eastern cultures), lucky bamboo has no relationship whatsoever to real bamboo. The site-specific installation will include four specimens of lucky bamboo woven into pineapple shapes, bird feeders and other accessories. At this point the works seeks to transmute the meaning of lucky bamboo – from dragon blood trees to the image of bamboo, from lucky bamboo to pineapples, and finally from pineapples to bird cages. In terms of appearance and meaning, this involves multiple layers of transformation and appropriation.

The piece Terrarium (Bird’s Nests) includes three tree branch installations individually attached to a wall, each one holding a bird’s nest made out of a coconut shell. The white coconut flesh is replaced by carved white marble, each with its own distinctive style: strictly coconut flesh, coconut flesh with bird’s eggs, and coconut flesh with bird’s footprints. The work Terrarium (Moss Balls) is made up of a basketball hoop, board and net, all of which are installed on a wall. The net has been lengthened so that it reaches about 70cm from the floor and inside are standard basketballs and moss balls made from basketballs. The moss balls are covered with dried sphagnum moss, which is often used as a medium to grow plants, on top of which grows live moss.

Jr-Shin Luo has exhibited at Tokyo Wonder Site, Hongo, Japan (2014); Hubei Museum of Art, China (2014); Kaosiung Museum of Fine Arts (2014); Queens Museum of Arts, New York (2013); Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2012); and Casa Das Caldeiras, São Paulo (2012). Luo has been a finalist in the 12th Taishin Arts Award (2013); Taipei Arts Award (2012); and the Arising Artist Award of New Taipei City (2011). He is also the recipient of artist residencies at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York (2013); Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo (2013); and Treasure Hill Artist Village, Taipei.

participants70 guideline70 information70 press70 essays70