Capital Art Center

E08, Taipei, Taiwan

+886-2-2775-5268
service@capitalart.com.tw
https://www.capitalart.com.tw/

Wu I-Chien (b. 1968) has long navigated between painting and mixed media, employing highly repetitive and systematic methods to explore the transformation between everyday experience and abstract structures.
“Books”: The Material Accumulation of Time and Memory
In Wu Yi-Chien’s work, “books” serve as the central motif. For her, books are not merely vessels of knowledge, but tangible embodiments of layered time and memory. She extracts the physical qualities of spines and pages, transforming them into visual “stacks.” This stacking is no longer a functional arrangement, but a means of collecting and preserving the trajectories of life and social experience.
“Line and Transformation”: A Poetic Translation of Rational Structures
Wu is adept at using restrained, rational lines as a foundation, through which she transforms the figurative form of books. These lines run horizontally in parallel or intersect vertically, evolving into rhythmic arrangements of color blocks. Through repeated hand-painting or collage, she dissolves the original reading function of books and reconstructs them into spatial forms reminiscent of architectural structures. Within these highly ordered grids and lines, subtle variations in color and edge treatment allow the works to retain a sense of emotional breath and fluidity within their rational framework.
Starting from the familiar presence of books in daily life, Wu extends her practice toward reflections on knowledge, time, and memory. Beyond their structural rigor, her works embody a poetic translation of lived experience. This distinctive approach lends her work a strong visual identity, achieving a delicate balance between rhythmic composition and chromatic variation, inviting viewers to linger—discovering nuanced layers and resonances with each repeated viewing.