Interview with Shu Cheng Tsao
You don’t really like calling yourself an artist. If you had to describe yourself in just one word, what would it be?
Maybe just “someone.”
Having worked as a technician before, does your technical background help you when making art, or do you sometimes have to consciously let it go?
I appreciate these experiences because they expanded my perspective on my own practice. For me, technique is a double-edged sword. Without technical knowledge, some possibilities remain invisible to you. At the same time, technique can also trap the way you think or work.
You have described art as a kind of diary. Diaries are often very private and personal. Are there works of yours that feel too private to be shown publicly?
I do have conflicted feelings about showing my work, but it’s not because the topics I deal with are too private. It’s more like that sometimes I can’t really find a reason convincing enough for me to show the work publicly.
Do you keep a written diary?
I have a chat room with myself. I type down my feelings or stories that come into my mind there. Sometimes I wait to see if the “read” sign will secretly appear. And sometimes I lose everything when the app updates.
Memory is a recurring theme in your work. In your installation I don’t want to forget a paper, you store the digital image of a sheet of paper back onto that very same sheet, as if the paper were the subject, the storage medium, and the proof of its own existence all at once. What was it about this paper that you didn’t want to forget?
I don’t want to forget the weight and the space required to store memory, or the fragility of the mediums that carry it.
What is the most recent good memory that comes to mind?
When I sat next to the lake in Münster last month, I felt both isolated from and connected to the environment. No one knows me or cares about me, but we all quietly share the same sunshine. I feel like a lucky person, simply to have the freedom and the ability to feel.
You once said that your works are never really finished. So when is the right moment for you to show something?
Usually, it’s the deadlines. I think when the project has been seen is the moment, but I’m not sure if it is the right moment or not.
What medium will you most likely not work with in the future?
The medium that would blow up the planet.
CREDITS
AUTHOR Nico Gaupp
PUBLSIHED 29 May 26