Taiwan Today

Sculptor Wu Ching is taking his art to the next level through expert mastery of carving techniques.
 
Over the past 40 years, Wu Ching (吳卿) has dedicated his life to the art of gold and wood carving, with his pieces making their way into exhibitions and public and private collections around the world. His latest show is on display at Houston Museum of Natural Science in the U.S. state of Texas through Feb. 6 following a run at Bowers Museum in California March 17-Sept. 5 last year.

“Exhibiting my art in prominent U.S. museums is an honor and a dream come true,” Wu said. “My ambition is to raise the profile of Taiwan’s craftsmanship on the global stage.” The artist added that he wants the international community to know Taiwan’s strengths lie not just in technology but also in cultural and creative industries.
 
Impressed by Wu’s delicate creations, Anne Shih (施劉秀枝), chairwoman of the Board of Governors at Bowers Museum, was ecstatic to have the opportunity to promote masterpieces from Taiwan. “The exhibition was a big success, drawing a lot of media coverage and attracting more than 30,000 museumgoers in addition to 16,700 online viewers,” she said. Bowers has established cooperative ties with many museums around the world, Shih said, adding that co-hosting a jade exhibition with Taipei City-based National Museum of History in 1997 was her museum’s first international presentation. The display of Wu’s art was made possible thanks to financial support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.
 
Early Influences
 
Born into a farming family in 1956 in the southern county of Chiayi, Wu had  a carefree childhood spent roaming the outdoors. Upon graduating from junior high school at the age of 16, he moved to Taipei to find a job. “At that time, demand for wooden furniture and sculptures from Japan was high, with tens of thousands of people engaged in the trade,” Wu recalled. “So I began teaching myself woodcarving while working at a furniture store.”
 
In his leisure time, Wu liked to visit the city’s National Palace Museum (NPM) to appreciate its famed treasures. “While admiring sophisticated artifacts like Jadeite Cabbage With Insects, I thought to myself, ‘If my work ever becomes prominent enough to earn a coveted place in the museum’s permanent collection, then I’ll have lived a worthwhile life,’” he said. “I knew I needed to specialize in a particular subject and accomplish something unprecedented to achieve my goals.”

Wu spent the next two years exploring various subject matter and honing his technical skills. Then one evening when he sat on a dike musing on sources of artistic inspiration, he saw seven tiny ants pushing a lizard egg up the almost vertical soil slope. Though it was many times their own body mass, the ants managed to hoist the egg up. “I was awed by the ants’ diligent teamwork as well as the subtle beauty of their body features,” Wu said. “I decided to use the insect as a model for my work.” From then on, Wu became a keen observer of ants, reading books about them and inspecting them with magnifying glasses and microscopes. He even went so far as to breed a colony of ants to study their behavior, habits and division of labor, recording every detail.
 
After numerous experimental attempts, Wu finally succeeded in carving an anatomically correct wooden ant in 1978. The 25 such sculptures featuring in his first solo exhibition at Taipei Fine Arts Museum in 1984 garnered critical acclaim for their extraordinarily lifelike representations of the insect. “I spent about five years carving ants without having any source of income,” Wu said. “My parents didn’t know much about art, but they gave me complete freedom to pursue my dreams, selling farmland to support me financially.” The artist expressed profound gratitude to his parents for enabling him to follow his own path.

Notable Accomplishments
 
As his reputation took off, Wu received a cascade of invitations to display his art at prominent institutions and galleries, including a stretch of 12 consecutive years at NPM starting in 1986. During that period Wu took to reading Buddhist and Taoist scriptures and practicing meditation to find inspiration and peace of mind. His search for enlightenment propelled him to explore issues surrounding life, death, eternity and transcendence, which became integral themes of his later work. Over the years, the sculptor has created a series of abstract and hyperrealistic pieces centering on ants, ecology, life and death, and Zen Buddhism.

According to Wu, much of his inspiration comes from childhood memories and his Zen practice, which also helps improve his focus and mental energy while reducing anxiety and stress. “Art is a way of expressing myself and my inner world—my thoughts, feelings, preferences and aversions,” he said. The sculptor wields his talent to promote the development of the country’s creative fields rather than for commercial gain.
 
As such, Wu is always searching for new artistic challenges, leading to his decision to start working with gold in 1991. “It’s all about practice making perfect—I’d devoted a great deal of time and effort to developing my skills at that point,” he said, adding that he wanted to test the limits of his capabilities by crafting larger, more complex pieces in a new material. His hard work paid off in a milestone achievement when NPM acquired his gold sculpture Prosperous Descendants for its collection in 1993, making him the first living artist whose work was purchased by the internationally renowned museum. Then in 2008, Wu was invited by the National Center for Traditional Arts in the northeastern county of Yilan to lead a group of 10 art students in producing a collaborative work. It took them 16 months to complete the 15-kilogram gold piece titled Love for the Hometown (Endless Life), which has been the centerpiece of the institution’s collection ever since.
 
Prosperous Descendants, 1993, marks the first artwork purchased by Taipei City-headquartered National Palace Museum from a living artist. (Photo courtesy of Wu Ching) Critical Reception
 
Lin Pao-yao (林保堯), honorary professor at Taipei National University of the Arts’ School of Culture Resources, lauds Wu as one of the few self-taught artists in Taiwan who had attained such a high level of achievement, including an international presence. “I admire the deep meanings, exquisite workmanship and streamlined forms in Wu’s creations,” Lin said, adding that the sculptor’s determination, persistence and relentless pursuit of excellence make him stand out in the country’s art circles.

Woodcarving requires a steady hand, a high degree of concentration and immense precision over a painstaking process potentially lasting years, Lin said. A slight slip could sever the leg of a delicate insect, requiring Wu to start all over again because his pieces are typically shaped from a single block. Though ants are small animals, his sculptures depicting them are full of momentum, the professor said.

  Other wooden artworks by Wu amaze for their immaculate detail. Case in point is Zen, 1986, which features a cicada perched on a sphere. The choice of insect is symbolic, as the words for Zen and cicada are homophones in Chinese. “I can’t help but marvel at the translucent and weightless appearance of the wings,” Lin said of the 0.02-millimeter-thick appendages. “There is a perfect symmetry, conveying a sense of balance, order and harmony.”
 
Another astonishing artwork by Wu is Walking Woman, the professor said. The paper-thin piece carved from a 20-kilogram boxwood block is shaped like a pair of embroidered lace panties and weighs a mere 23 grams. “This visually appealing artwork leaves much to the viewer’s imagination by depicting a hollowed-out piece of lingerie, sans the body of the wearer,” he said. “Still, one may imagine the woman walking with grace and elegance or give thought to the philosophical concepts of presence and absence.”

Wu has demonstrated exceptional artistry and technique while pushing the limits of his craft through meticulous practice, Lin said. “Despite having followed Wu’s work for the past 20 years, I’m always amazed anew at each piece he creates,” the professor said. “He’s sure to occupy an important position in Taiwan’s art history.” Over the course of his career, Wu has rarely sold any of his 60 total wooden sculptures. “My ultimate goal is to establish a museum to preserve my works for future generations,” Wu explained of his choice. “Life is short, but art is eternal.”

Write to Kelly Her at kher@mofa.gov.tw