The Build in Eyes, Form in Mind exhibition is the first solo exhibition of artist Liu Cheng-Hsiang in the Gallery for Citizens series of KMFA, presenting to viewers a wide variety of Liu’s works across different media such as digital art, photography, video, and space installation from 2016 to the present. Reflecting Liu’s focus on the core connections between man and nature, these works constitute a world of perceptions that resonates with viewers.
 
The title of this exhibition is inspired by the two major concepts that are mutually complementary and dialectic in this exhibition: “connecting” (Build in Eyes) and “thinking” (Form in Mind). These two concepts are represented respectively by the selected works of Liu’s Build a World in the Eye and Comos of Thoughts series in this exhibition. In addition, the latest works created by Liu in 2022 as an artist-in-residence in Nantes of France are also included in this exhibition to comprehensively represent his artistic creation in different stages, providing a window into how Liu’s interpretation of time and space evolves across different series of works to form his own loop of thoughts about artistic creation. 
 
The Cosmos of Thoughts series is a work series of generative art, in which Liu attempts to break existing operational procedures and thinking models of artistic creation by incorporating logics that occurs in nature to create different algorithms for his artistic creation. Instead of the painting brush, he uses programming codes to connect points and overlay lines to generate digital paintings that bear resemblance to beautiful scenery of star constellations. Through his paintings constructed with mathematic and scientific logics, Liu also intends to discuss issues such as the interaction and collaboration between man and machine as well as the connections among artificial intelligence, creativity and creation. 
 
To the artist, photography is a process of telling stories and understanding the world. Through the eyes of the photographer, the textures of the world are translated into a unique language. The works in Liu’s Build a World in the Eye series are photographs of buildings, cityscape and other kinds of scenery in man-made and natural environments with light, shadow, forms, colors, and geometric aesthetics. This series exemplifies that the art of photography is more than a kind of perspective of viewing or a kind of visual expression—it is more like a process or media through which the artist connects with the environment, leaving traces of his movement, seeking and exploration in the world.
 
The artist starts with a “point” composed of one pixel, the smallest units of digital imagery. Then multiple “points” are connected to form a “line” and multiple “lines” are overlaid to form “planes”. Over time, multiple “planes” are accumulated to form a “volume” that corresponds to the real the world. A look at each of Liu’s image works is like immersion into an immense cosmos composed of traces left by moving photons, into a cosmos of ever-changing images born out of oscillation between consciousness and unconsciousness, between macrocosmic and microcosmic perspectives. 
 
Supervised by: Bureau of Cultural Affairs, Kaohsiung City Government
Organized by: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Appointed Deformaldehyde Coating Sponsor: HOPAX
Special Thanks to: Le Lieu unique, Taipei Artist Village, Institut d'études avancées de Nantes, Shawn Liu Studio



Horizon #8｜Cosmos of thoughts X, Algorithm system, paper, pigment ink, 2020/2022