​Kai Dao Tu Mi Exhibition Discourse
Shen Yining, Iris Huang 

When compared to modern life, the classical world is always shrouded in shining brilliance, with its own cast of elegant and refined characters and a sense of riches and power, while the eternal nature of natural birds and flowers artificially overlay the ostentatious desires of material life. When compared to the classical, modernity is boldly straightforward, juxtaposing evil nature and superficially clever wealth and beauty. The artist deliberately chooses and places together gaudy colors and fake objects as a way of deconstructing the alienation of the refined style and eternal truth of classical art history.

Su Meng-hung was born in 1976 and has his own youthful yet cynical approach to common customs. Relative to the concerns for society and integrity of senior officials, Su uses a common vocabulary when dealing with the world, using a modern popular style to raise questions about the vulgarity of art and the spirit of material consumer culture. At the same time, he transforms this critically exotic tone into his own inimical artistic style.

Su Meng-hung wittily plays with classical still life works in art history, transplanting alien mutant genes into the frozen and eternal aesthetic faith portrayed in these paintings. From each protruding semi-circular transparent glass grows a plastic flower that will never wilt or grow old. When compared to the exquisitely crafted bunch of flowers by the artist in this famous piece, a cheap plastic flower purchased at any store appears common and false. However, the artist uses this eye-catching addition to reflect the subsidiary refinement of market trade in art. In Material Paradise it is exactly these still life reproductions, so favored by people of refinement, that Su Meng-hung chooses to use, turning art into a prevailing custom of material consumption. In the hands of an artist what most people see as “true” and “false,” “refined” and “vulgar,” “spiritual” and “material” are subverted, mixed with art, art commodities and finished goods. Added to that are the purposeful construction of gaudy colors, the highlighting of material nature and a decorative overtone. If art is a product for sale, then aesthetics are nothing but flashy colors chosen by a particular artist.

Su uses gaudy colors as a vehicle to criticize vulgar language and ultimately employs this approach, replete with dazzling colors but essentially empty, to symbolize the cynical style and taste of a generation of young artists. The critical tone that comes with satirizing the present through the past, or explaining the past from the present, lacks the showy and sharp tones of the avant garde and does not display the disgust for the world and its ways of a defender of moral principle. From Material Paradise to Kai Dao Tu Mi, (開到荼靡：The Roseleaf Raspberry in Full Bloom) Su Meng-hung’s works have been infused with a form of “concerned criticism and optimistic joy” common in contemporary work. Even if the gaudiness of art, the vulgarity of culture and the consumption of taste are empty and resplendent, the artist still works hard to find something alluring about them. Even in a degenerate and material mortal world, there is still the freedom of heaven. Even if everything is ultimately decadent, the view of the roseleaf raspberry in full bloom makes everything worthwhile.

Kai Dao Tu Mi is an example of the artist extending cultural subject matter into his artistic taste, transforming the bird and flower paintings of the Chinese imperial court into Su Meng-hung-type pop art. He also utilizes a belittling of the spiritual meaning accorded colors in traditional Chinese aesthetics and their relationship to common values. Handicraft works that were looked down on in traditional aesthetics are deliberately added as a contrast to the bird and flower paintings, which are a symbol of refinement and prevalent customs. The bird and flower lanterns seen during Lantern Festival, with their powerful folk colors and graphic designs, are replete with a sense of hustle and bustle and common custom. In the past they were hung in the royal court or homes of senior officials to show off their refinement. As part of daily life marketplace aesthetics ensured gaudy colors were regarded as most beautiful, and enjoyment their main purpose. As part of the language of reproduction and transformation, the artist creates a form of local Taiwanese pop art, resplendent but empty, common but also innocent and romantic. Looking closely at the Su Meng-hung’s attention to detail in the use of color when painting on canvas, we discover that even coarse colors possess an inherent alternative refinement. Clearly then, the artist is not simply willful but seeking to subvert and oppose tradition. In fact, in his series of destructive actions we find an artistic garden of “blooming roseleaf raspberries” wherein the scenery is pleasing to both the eye and mind.