A selection
MARK, 2017
Diary, colour photographs, two-channel video installation, 10 min 39 sec, loop, HD (16:9)
In her search for absurdity, the artist Szu-Ying Hsu, known as Ida, leads a rhinoceros around the junction above London’s Bank station. This arbitrary act flabbergasts and amuses many passers-by, while others remain aloof or indifferent. Although Mark is not a real rhino, his relevance is integral to themes rooted in existentialist tradition.
The work made by Hsu was based on a rhino made for the Royal Theatre’s 2007 production of Eugène Ionesco’s play ‘Rhinoceros’. In it the human condition is criticised as abstruse in the knowledge that collective psychosis allows a totalitarian transformation.
In both works, the horned creature stimulates a discussion about the extent to which people question a trivial phenomenon or ideology. The irony of it is that we think rhinos are rampaging herd animals – but in reality, just like Mark, they are loners.
The performance reveals not only topics such as a self-proclamation against conformity, but also attempts to uncover the stresses and strains of the individual in cosmopolitan surroundings. In the foreground there is a subtle struggle for existence – a longing for identity and release from a condition of rush-hour automatism.
Which is more absurd? A fake rhino being led through the streets of London or a mass of people immersed in their involuntary automatism who appear to ignoring the rhino?
KLANGHAUT, 2018 – 2021
Performance, moving sculpture, film, sound art, eggshell glazed porcelain, 13 min 26 sec, HD (16:9)
In the manufacture of a suit of armour, Szu-Ying Hsu has explored the fragile material of porcelain to turn it into seemingly protective items of clothing. For the artist, armour made from eggshell porcelain that offers its wearer no protection symbolises defenceless individuals who have to stand their ground in their environment. It may, however, also represent the vulnerability of her homeland of Taiwan.
The work, which consists of different media, video and performance and deals with gender issues, convinces in its poetry, its content-related complexity and its technical perfection.