Su Yu Hsin
Wet Mechanics of Seeing
Kunsthalle Winterthur
Winterthur, Switzerland
May 29 – Jun 24, 2022
Opening: May 28, 5pm

“Su Yu Hsin is showing the two video installations frame of reference I and frame of reference II. Although they are independent works, both deal with the question of how a section of reality relates to a data set created from it with the help of technical measuring devices. Su Yu Hsin juxtaposes excerpts of reality with visualisations and animations created from collected data, thus crossing the reference systems of field study, data collection and interpretation.

The video installation Tidal Variations (2021), a joint production by Su Yu Hsin and the Australian dancer and choreographer Angela Goh at the invitation of the Sydney Opera, provides a completely different system of reference. Through the medium of light, the motif of the window is combined with the element of water. The continuously moving ocean penetrates through the large panes of glass into the interior of the opera house and appears as a metaphor for the data conglomerate of the internet, into which we also gain insight through screen windows.

The bridge between frame of reference and Tidal Variations is made by the two C-prints fluvial bedrock I & II (2021) and the sculpture Meshed Waves (2022), all of which show topographies modelled on the computer. As in frame of reference I, the raw data for fluvial bedrock I & II come from the Liwu River in the Taroko National Park, those of Meshed Waves from a bathymetric map of the Mediterranean. As similar as the visual results are here, as different are the methods on which they are based: While the riverbed (above water) is reconstructed with the help of photogrammetry, a method for calculating three-dimensional topography from two-dimensional photographs, the underwater terrain is determined with sonar technology, based on the measurement of sound waves emitted and reflected by the terrain.”

Texted adapted from the German version available at Kunsthalle Winterthur’s website.