Julien Tang
Taiwan
Julien Tang's creations serve as the physical evidence of her solitary journey through life, with ceramic sculptures as her foundation. She brings the element of spontaneity and experimentation from "happenings" into the process of sculpting the human body in clay—a technique she refers to as "glazing"—developing process-oriented video works. Through the transformative nature of clay and glaze, she expresses the dramatic impermanence of existence.
On the other hand, inspired by the portrayal of body language and subtle undercurrents in slow cinema, Julien Tang appropriates the concept of the "cinematic body." Using the compositional technique of framing shots, she captures moments of emotion and tension, tracing the contours of her sculptures to create what she describes as "a love letter with the weight of a thousand tons."
The narratives in her work stem from East Asian literature, popular culture, and personal experiences of diaspora, with identity as a recurring theme. By translating text and two-dimensional storytelling into three-dimensional forms that intervene in space, she seeks to engage the audience in a dialogue about existence, emotional fluidity, and human predicaments. The complexity of life extends her research into human behavior, neuroscience, psychology, and the socio-political landscape, which is dispersed across her static sculptures and dynamic video works.