Comments on the Finalist

Wu Chuan-Lun’s solo exhibition, No Country for Canine, comprises two themes: animal breeding and nationalism. Regarding the former, the artist investigates the breeding history of German Shepherd Dog that has evolved from a (canine) species to a (shepherd dog) breed. Regarding the latter, the artist starts with the German Shepherd Dog porcelain coin banks produced in Taiwan’s Yingge and traces history of the labor work in Germany’s concentration camps that produced porcelains for a Nazi-designated porcelain brand, connecting the backdrop of Japan and Germany as the Axis to the collective memory of imperial Japan’s commandeering shepherd dogs in colonial Taiwan. The exhibition displays various groups and series of German Shepherd Dog porcelain in a wide range of postures, demonstrating archives about the codependence between humans and canines as well as their aesthetic interpretation. Meanwhile, the exhibition also hints at the construction of national myth, war and colonial history through the lens of eugenics employed by the Nazis in breeding. Although the approach is relatively straightforward, the exhibition reveals a creative route rarely seen in Taiwan. (Commentator: Rikey Tenn Bun-ki)

 

Artwork Introduction

The exhibition begins with the artist’s extensive collection of shepherd dog-shaped money banks produced in Yingge, which he has started collecting since 2012. He links these mass produced ceramic money banks to the breeding and certification of purebred dogs, and traces the history of German Shepherd Dogs (GSD) to examine the history of how the German Empire used the breeding of purebred GSD to construct national identity; how the Japanese colonial regime in Taiwan copied the German Empire and introduced GSD as military dogs; and how the Nationalist Government continued using GSD as service dogs, such as police and military dogs. The artist also includes in the discussion the interrelations between other canine breeds and nationalism in history for comparison. In the exhibition, the audience sees the artist’s ceramic collection of dogs as well as a number of sculptures, drawings, videos, photographs, bronze sculptures and documents, which form metaphoric layers that are intricately linked. From ceramic sculptures, to canines, to comparison of canine breeds and pedigrees, to the history of breeders, the exhibition creates an elaborate space of discourses about species discipline, national construction as well as the history of war and colonization.

About the Artist

WU Chuan-Lun Born in Tainan in 1985, Wu Chuan-Lun holds an MFA from the Graduate Institute of Plastic Arts, Tainan National University of the Arts. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Tainan. The ever-going changes, compromises and contradictions informing the relations between nature and civilization, ecology and politics as well as materials and the digital have formed the general background of his art practice. He employs a diverse range of media to create conceptual and research-based installations. His works have been shown at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, National Taiwan Museum of the Arts, Gwangju Museum of Art, Rockbund Art Museum and Künstlerhaus Bethanien; and he was also featured in the 2014 Taipei Biennial. https://www.wuchuanlun.com