Carrier 8
Shyu Ruey-Shiann
徐瑞憲
Production date
2013
Object Detail
Media
newspaper, motor, wood, metal
Measurements
85 x 40 x 40 cm
Notes
The kinetic sculptures of Shyu Ruey-Shiann, made from found, assembled and manufactured machine parts and recycled objects, are infused with personal and cultural memory. As a boy living in a crowded, impoverished home in Taipei, Shyu Ruey-Shiann made his own toys from broken and discarded objects found in the streets, often brought home by his mother, who to this day collects recycling to sell. The artist describes his mother as an extraordinarily resilient and determined character; even as an old woman she continues to wheel her heavy cart filled with objects, paper and cardboard through the streets and alleyways of Taipei to the recycling depot. She coped with a drunk, despairing and sometimes violent husband, scrimping and saving to make ends meet for her five children. Shyu believes that his determination to make his complicated, physically demanding, mechanical artworks – often refined and developed over many years – is inherited from his mother. Despite a very difficult relationship, he credits his father, who came to Taiwan from the cultured mainland city of Suzhou during the war, for the interest he always had in art, even as a small boy who hated school and wanted to get a job to help the family finances.
Carrier 8 (2013) reflects on his mother’s harsh existence: she pushed a heavy cart filled with recycling through the streets, her income dependent on the weight of the paper and cardboard collected that day. A stack of old newspapers tied with string is suspended at one end of a makeshift weight, turning slowly in the air. At the other end of the bar, a wooden propeller rotates, operated by a small motor. With such simplicity of means, Shyu Ruey-Shiann suggests a multiplicity of meanings and metaphors, from his own autobiographical narrative of salvation through art, to suggestions of the weight of memory and the inescapable nature of the past.
Carrier 8 (2013) reflects on his mother’s harsh existence: she pushed a heavy cart filled with recycling through the streets, her income dependent on the weight of the paper and cardboard collected that day. A stack of old newspapers tied with string is suspended at one end of a makeshift weight, turning slowly in the air. At the other end of the bar, a wooden propeller rotates, operated by a small motor. With such simplicity of means, Shyu Ruey-Shiann suggests a multiplicity of meanings and metaphors, from his own autobiographical narrative of salvation through art, to suggestions of the weight of memory and the inescapable nature of the past.
Accession number
2014.025