With the exhibition “Sisyphus’s Doubt”, the sculptor interrogates the meaning of repetition and the strain of the artistic gesture
isyphus, King of Corinth, is considered among the shrewdest and most fraudulent figures of the ancient world. His Hybris toward Zeus and Hades condemns him to a terrifying torment: pushing an enormous boulder to the peak of a mountain only to be overwhelmed, a step from the summit, by the weight of the stone rolling back down to the valley. An agony that repeats itself infinitely. Apollinaire, in Signe, compares the Greek king’s condemnation to the suffering of love; Camus turns it into a metaphor for human existence.
One remains magnetically attracted by sinuous forms that seem to float silently within the environment
The latter writes: “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” thus transforming him into a hero who finds his own freedom in action, conscious of the struggle but master of his own destiny. The exhibition by Taiwanese artist Hsu Yunghsu, titled “Sisyphus’s Doubt” - hosted at the Arkad Foundation from June 4 to July 30 and curated by Shenghua Zheng - fits into this groove. The works are born from a reflection on the bond between the artist and the object of creation which, parallel to Sisyphus and his boulder, interrogates the meaning of the repetition of the gesture and the exhaustion of the creative process. When entering the long underground gallery, one remains magnetically attracted by sinuous forms that seem to float silently in the environment. Organic interweavings, even of large dimensions, in constant development and engaged in a motion so elegant it appears perpetual.
One experiences a sense of estrangement upon discovering that the large-scale sculptures are made of ceramic
The feeling of estrangement increases when the visitor, deceived by structures so light they almost invite a touch and simultaneously seem to caress us, discovers they are actually made of thin ceramic. Born in Kaohsiung in 1955, Hsu - initially a renowned cello professor - encountered clay in 1986, becoming forever bonded to it. In the early 2000s, he obtained a Master’s in Plastic Arts from the Tainan National University of the Arts. He would soon overcome the conceptual limits of traditional ceramics to become one of its most interesting contemporary interpreters. The work “2024-21” stands as a testament to the artist’s poetics: upon the dense surface of the black stoneware, the fingerprints of the craftsmanship emerge, alongside clusters of accumulated clay and the irregularities of a creative process based on the repeated addition of material. These elements in tension with one another cease to be simple technical traces and instead become the texture of a body endowed with its own pulsing life force. The sculptor thus fulfills the arduous task of merging a millennial tradition with a contemporary existential search.
Organic interweavings engaged in a motion so elegant it appears perpetual
