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wen gum gum Solo Exhibition Catalogue
2025
wen gum gum, Lügenflut 謊言洪流, 2025
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, mounted on wood panel, 28×20cm
Epigraph
Gender is a performance, and I continue to ask: what defines beauty?
While surfing the internet, I came across a passage:
“(...) A strange epidemic affects the city’s women. One day, they wake to find their heads separated from their bodies, yet still connected and controllable without pain. After initial difficulty, they quickly adapt and resume their normal lives.”
One day, I encountered a digitally altered image online: a car show girl model in a tight skirt whose legs had been digitally transformed into four, like those of a centaur.
I am deeply fascinated by these bodies that both reinforce and subvert gender boundaries, mutated yet still objectified. I deliberately chose such images as the central theme of this visual book, hoping to inspire new ways of imagining the “transformed body” and its gendered condition.
- wen gum gum, Wimpern-Verlängerung(2025)
Chapter 1
"A strange epidemic is affecting the women of the city. They have no harmful symptoms or painful effects; they simply wake up one day and realize their heads have separated from their bodies. There is no discomfort or pain; the heads remain remotely connected to their decapitated bodies and they can control them by remote control. At first, the girls have some trouble adjusting to being heads independent of their bodies, but after a few days, they adapt and continue with their normal lives."— Unknown, a description from the internet
Chapter
Exhibition Venue: Yáo, sits quietly in a narrow alley within the Budeng Apartment in Taichung, Taiwan, completed in 1962.
Its yellow facade catches the light, and above the entrance, a small torii marks the doorway, hinting at a hidden sanctuary within the urban fabric.
Yáo generously welcomed me to stay at the space throughout the exhibition, offering an experience akin to an artist residency. I devoted myself to the work, and in the stillness of night, I would walk to the 24-hour hardware store, selecting materials under the quiet glow of the streetlights…
＊Statement＊
"Mind the Mindless" attempts to capture a moment, like an enchanted fire burning at dawn. Different states of mind—unaware, attentive, distracted, or devoted—gaze at each other.
Imagine four scenes of daily life:
you find yourself swaying to the music of a YouTube ad; you're captivated by a selfie showing abs, only to discover the person is a riot police officer known for abusing power with violence in political movements; you're drawn to a painting but disturbed by the wrong music in the exhibition space; you watch a friend float in the ocean, only to realize the sound of waves is copyrighted music. In that nauseating moment, you feel spiritually drained.
wen gum gum cannot discuss spirituality, but she observes life and film, creating ‘bodiless figures’ inspired by internet images, casting a wry smile at those outside the canvas.
Her paintings invite us to review our time from a distance.
The subjects in the paintings do not look at you; they are entirely absorbed in their own world.
＊Floor Plan＊
Section A
The Genesis of Images and Distraction
The Genesis of Images and Distraction
atlas on Sack (1) - Varieties of Distraction
This section presents wen gum gum’s meme collages and thought notebooks. She juxtaposes images, symbols, and text—seemingly chaotic yet revealing her dynamic thinking. Fascinated by semantic errors in automatic translation (e.g., “form” rendered as “formation” or “shape”), she opens a playful, interpretive space. The section title references her 2024 film still Kind of Kindness.
atlas on Sack (2) -Romance / Action
Drawing on interactive video patents where viewers choose the plot (romance or action), wen gum gum translates this into painting and installation. “Bare breasts” become emblems of romance, challenging mainstream notions of propriety. Her exploration of female figures reduced to legs began in 2019 after encountering erotic online images, sparking both strong emotions and formal innovation in her work.
Section A
Paintings
Paintings
17. I See, I See: Two women join hands, a green glow emerging.
1. Velocidad funda el olvido: An ambiguous, beastly silhouette.
19. Lügenflut: A hair-filled bathroom, shadows whispering.
3. Castell β: Circus / Catalan casteller motifs.
16. we are more similar than different: An ambivalent tension between police and suspect.
5. Raw memories: A woman at an electrified fence.
18. Die Hard: Desire fades as a familiar interaction is witnessed.
4. Freestyle: A flying centaur attempts to exit the frame.
6. Improvisiert und zielbewusst: Three girls watching a film together.
7. Glaring Glares: Symbols of dependency.
atlas on Sack (3) - Good Will Hunting, Does Good Will Hunt?
The title references wen gum gum’s 2022 Taipei solo show, itself inspired by Good Will Hunting (1997). This section features quick sketches of female statues and male atlantes, exploring power and pain, and draws on the documentary Les dites cariatides (1984) to reconsider gender dynamics in Parisian statuary.
Acrylic on canvas, 46.5×38×5cm
Chapter 3
Deliberately distancing itself from “high art” aspirations, this exhibition continues wen gum gum’s “Bad Painting” ethos—an approach since 2016 that purposefully appears “unrefined” and yet has received positive critical and collector attention. Works from 2024 have been acquired by collections in Manila and Copenhagen.
The gallery’s white lighting and neutral spaces evoke the typical art gallery, but are subverted by the exhibition’s anti-aesthetic and absurd content.
The exhibition title, #TETAS, is borrowed from both the song by the Argentine band Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso and as a mockery of the pop-culture obsession with “big breasts” connecting to wen gum gum’s ongoing critique of gender and media representation.
Post-2020, wen gum gum shifted toward black, white, and fluorescent green painting—a reflection of her heightened social and political consciousness, with monochromatic palettes channeling a cooler, more incisive criticality.
Finally, the boundary between pornography and eroticism is a potent “playground” in wen gum gum’s painting, and a locus for reflection. Her brand of irony and mockery compels the viewer to reconsider everyday experiences, desire, gender, and the limits of corporeality.
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 46.5×38×5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, 80×69.5×5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, 215×120cm
Section B
Metamorphosis and Multiplicity of the Self
Section B Paintings
Metamorphosis and Multiplicity of the Self
Section B Paintings
15. Junkspace: Two villains pursue a “bodyless” woman; the stark contrast between reality and a flat backdrop suggests the ever-present banality of evil.
19. In the Air Tonight: A nocturnal urban transformation of a woman—central to Section A—symbolizing the flux between daily life and multiple identities.
8. Smoke in the Eyes: A group engaged in dance, rhythmically dynamic as smoke.
9. Where Words Fail: A runaway pet dog—a metaphor for language’s ultimate limits and constraints.
Section C
Human Towers and Cognitive Space
Section C Paintings
Human Towers and Cognitive Space
Section C Paintings
12. Somniflame: Flames leap from a refrigerator at night, alluding to the magical realism of García Márquez’s “Light Is Like Water.”
10. Lubrication: An allusive, sexualized interpretation of connection, transition, and imagination.
20. Castell: Merging circus, Catalan casteller traditions, and an on-site fountain installation; symbolizing strength and stratification/layering.
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 46.5×38×5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 46.5×38×5cm
Section C
- Special Note -
- Special Note -
In constructing her fragile cardboard human towers (castell) , wen gum gum draws on Aby Warburg and E.H. Gombrich’s concept of the “interstitial” and “cognitive space” from the Mnemosyne Atlas. She investigates the coexistence of signs, order and chaos, divergences of meaning, and how art crafts distance for imagination and observation—like assembling a puzzle from fragments, where fiction may find its place among supposed coherence. [Owing to practical circumstances, this section was not executed and is shown here as a concept drawing.]
Section C is set in low light to foster an atmosphere of contemplative calm, aligning with its curatorial focus.
Section D
Language Boundaries and the Play of Titles
Language Boundaries and the Play of Titles
Section D, wen gum gum graffiti’ed the “exhibition checklist” on rice sacks, highlighting the play between title meanings and misreadings, often using foreign-language names to invite viewers’ interpretation and imagination.
Section D Paintings
13. The Quiet Due: A figure trapped within their own legs.
11. Sleeping Nymphs: A double portrait in repose.
14. Saliva: A monumental statue amid a landscape.
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 46.5×38×5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 65×53×2.5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 65×53×2.5cm
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, mounted on wood panel, 14×20cm
Chapter 3
"Velocity Begets Oblivion: The Bipedal Ghost I Captured That Day."
An Image Workshop with wen gum gum.
May 3, 2025 | 14:00–16:00
Gratitude to every participant, and to the hands that made it possible.
Afterword
Since the end of 2023, I have been preparing for a solo exhibition at the age of thirty, working at an irregular but sustained pace.
These exhibitions follow no fixed formula or guarantee; they unfolded in ordinary yet unpredictable circumstances: a stalled car, works crammed into the backseat, no air conditioning, and a summer of 32°C. They were not shaped by careful design, but by repeated adjustments of time, space, and chance.
No prior certainty was demanded, no assurance ever given; they often came into being amid doubt.
They are not sought after, not pursued by markets or algorithms—they generate no expectations and are not meant to be repeated. They rely on no predetermined strategy, disguise, or collaboration. Most works stand alone, while some return unexpectedly, reappearing across exhibitions like uninvited guests.
Humans appear only in fragments: an email in a distinct tone, a passing remark, a blurred silhouette. Sometimes the context is recognizable; other times it dissolves into noise.
What these works offer is not merely an exhibition, but a possibility of being confronted. These fleeting, unplanned, often overlooked moments form a kind of private diary, extending across exhibitions and non-exhibitions alike, never revealing anything fully autobiographical.
Acrylic and crayon on canvas, wrapped in plastic film, 35×27×5cm
Author Biography
wen gum gum is a Taiwanese artist, T-shirt designer, and self-publishing author. Her practice centers on the reflection and manipulation of images, exploring their purity, misplacement, and emotional resonance. Using collage, painting, and other media, she weaves together spirituality, lived experiences, and online encounters, often employing absurdity as an ornamental and critical language.
Focusing on the narrow construction of gender roles, she investigates the deformed human body and its interiority. Her work merges visual art criticism, queer aesthetic strategies, and the language of visual essays, questioning who holds the narrative power of images. Her art functions as visual intervention, examining the politics and circulation of images in contemporary society.
Since 2016, she has drawn on advertisements, magazines, and news imagery to create series such as English Cuisine and the video work Baby Come On, transforming found images into painting, collage, artist books, garments, and exhibition objects. These works interrogate the interface between images and reality, producing narratives that are familiar yet destabilized.
Between 2018 and 2020, her practice shifted from satire and found imagery to working with collected paper fragments and her own photographs. Her painting language evolved from bright, polished colors to a restrained monochrome palette, using black acrylic, ink, and water-soluble crayons, reflecting a more contemplative and introspective approach.
Texts in Sinophone
Mind the Mindless|分心的種類｜內容翻譯
引言｜性別是一種表演，而我不斷問：美由何者定義？
網路衝浪時，我看到這樣一段文字：「……一種奇異的流行病影響了城市的女性。某天，她們醒來發現自己的頭與身體分離，但仍然相連且可控制，且沒有痛感。經過最初的不適，她們很快適應，並恢復了日常生活。」
一天，我看到一張經過數位處理的圖片：一位車展模特兒穿著窄裙，而她的雙腿被改造成四隻腿，像是半人馬的模樣。既強化同時又挑弄的性別界限，這種＃身體變形卻仍能被物化的圖像，深深吸引著我。我特意選擇這類影像作為這本影像書的核心主題，希望拓展人們對「變異身體」及其性別狀態的多重想像方式。
-溫金金《睫毛延長術》 （2025）
Chapter 1
第一章｜一段來自網路的敘事
「一種奇異的流行病影響城市女性。她們醒來時，頭部與身體分離，但沒有痛感，也能遠程控制。最初會有些不適，但幾天後就能適應，恢復日常生活。」
— 未知作者
Chapter 2
第二章｜展覽空間
窯座位於1962年臺中步登公寓小巷，黃色外牆映光，入口上方有小鳥居，暗示城市中的避難所。
展覽期間藝術家駐留空間，創作與生活交融，提供駐地般體驗。
展覽論述｜「分心的種類 Mind the Mindless」溫金金個展
「分心的種類 Mind the Mindless」是專注力被收斂的一刻，著魔的火團在清晨燃燒，無心／留心／分心／走心的種類全都望向彼此。
試想當代生活四景：
當你沉浸其中，不自覺地跟著YouTube廣告音樂搖擺；覺得此人露腹肌的自拍真吸引人，卻發現此人是以武力參與政治運動的防暴警察；受畫作吸引，卻被空間中錯誤的音樂打擾；看著朋友在大海中的自由景象，卻發現海浪聲是版權音樂。精神作嘔的瞬間，感覺自己靈性盡失。
溫金金沒辦法直接討論靈性，但她觀察生活和電影，擷取並畫出受網路圖像啟發的「無身體人物」，並對著畫外的些許人——令人刺眼的怒視，輕笑。在溫金金的繪畫中，色彩是敘事與物質張力的核心。明亮的螢光綠與深黑色構成了畫面的強烈對比結構，綠色以潑灑的方式流動於畫面，或以乾刷技法呈現出輕薄而透光的層次。在人物的雙足周圍，從暗苔綠、煙霧綠到霧灰、煤黑的多重色階被擦拭進畫布，留下具手感的痕跡。散落的紙屑顆粒緊貼畫面，如同被抽去空氣的薄膜，引發一種直觀、具觸感的臨場感。未上色的雙腿保持裸露，引導視線遊走於色塊與空白之間的邊界。在這裡，色彩不只是顏色本身，而是姿態、殘留，以及視覺上的對抗力量。
她的繪畫試著讓我們彷彿從很遠的地方審視我們的時代。畫中的主角不會看著你，而是完全專注在自己的事情上。
Chapter 3
第三章｜展覽理念
本展覽刻意遠離所謂「高級」視覺藝術，延續溫金金自2016年以來「壞繪畫」（Bad Painting）理念——作品看似不登大雅之堂，卻獲藏家與藝評好評。2024年作品亦於臺灣，菲律賓馬尼拉和丹麥哥本哈根獲藏家收藏。展場以白光與白空間，營造典型藝廊樣貌，實則承載著「反美學」與荒誕內容。
而溫金金的畫面敘事非常直白。展名#TETAS取自阿根廷樂團Ca7riel & Paco Amoroso同名歌曲，諷刺大眾文化中「大胸部」的迷思，連結溫金金對性別、媒體造型的長期反思。
2020年後，藝術家轉向黑白與螢光綠色繪畫，呼應其社會與政治參與意識及自省——單色調表現出更冷靜的批判性。最後，色情與情色的界線，是溫金金繪畫中遊戲與反思的重要主題。她用戲謔與嘲諷，使觀者重新思考日常、慾望、性別與身體的界限。
A區｜圖像與分心的開始
駐展時期，溫金金在展場附近24小時營業的生活五金行中，找到合適的米袋/工程袋作為材料，以蠟筆在袋子表面紀錄下思考地圖集。
「米袋圖集（一）分心的種類」
作為展覽的起點，在A區以素描方式呈現溫金金藉由迷因圖、思緒筆記等引起的思考素材。她喜歡將圖像、符號和文字並列呈現，看似雜亂，實則展現她獨特、動態的思考過程。其中，她特別著迷於自動翻譯造成的語義錯誤（如翻譯相機在短暫的秒數內把 form譯成「形成」、「變形」或「形式」，單一字詞幻化為多重意義），開啟實用但有趣的詮釋空間。展覽區名「分心的種類 Mind the Mindless」，呼應了其引用電影名稱《憐憫的種類》（Kind of Kindness），亦是貫穿全展的主題。
「米袋圖集（二）浪漫 / 動作 」
受互動影像專利圖啟發——觀眾可透過遙控器，決定電視播映的劇情走向（浪漫片/動作片），溫金金化這一概念為塗鴉：以「裸露胸部」的浪漫劇情，衝擊及挑戰大眾對「適當內容」的界線。溫金金長期創作無身體僅雙腿的女性造型，反映她對變形身體、美學與性別角色塑造的關注。尤其2019年在網路社群中看到「只有雙腿的女人」情色圖像時的憤怒與複雜感受，成為開啟新造型探索的契機。
A區｜畫作
疲倦的彌撒 / I See, I See
速度生產遺忘 / Velocidad funda el olvido
謊言洪流 / Lügenflut
人塔β / Castell β
我們的相似之處多於差異/ we are more similar than different：警察與嫌犯間的曖昧氣氛
低度開發的回憶/ Raw Memories：觸電圍欄的女子
未獵先死/ Die Hard：目睹熟人互動、慾望消退
自由式 / Free Style
即興與目的 / Improvisiert und zielbewusst
刺眼的怒視 / Glaring Glares
「米袋圖集（二）善的意志會狩獵 」
源自溫金金2022年於臺北個展標題，靈感來自電影《心靈捕手》（Good Will Hunting），直譯為「善的意志會狩獵」。本區展示女性雕像的速寫與男性柱飾形象，探討力量與痛苦的並存。也受《女雕像物語》（Les dites cariatides）紀錄片啟發，對巴黎建築中雕像的性別氣質與張力進行圖像方面的紀錄與研究。
B區｜變身與自我多重性
B區｜畫作
太空垃圾/Junkspace：兩惡徒抓捕無身體女性，現實與扁平強烈對比
今夜在空/In the Air Tonight：於夜巷變身，身份在日常與多重間流動
眼睛裡的煙/Smoke in the Eyes
言語失敗的地方/ Where Words Fail：失控的寵物狗
C區｜疊人塔與思維空間
C區｜畫作
眠火/Somniflame：夜中冰箱內躍出的火，致敬馬奎斯《流光似水》的魔幻寫實片段
潤滑 /Lubrication
人塔噴泉 /Castell
在堆疊破碎紙板人塔過程中，溫金金借鑒了瓦爾堡與貢布里希的《摩涅莫辛涅地圖集》中「中間空間」與「思維空間」概念。她探索符號、秩序與混沌的並存、意義的分歧，以及藝術如何在物象之間創造想像與觀察的距離——如同拼圖將零碎拼成圖，但其中也可能包含虛構。
C區空間保持幽暗、沉靜的空間。
D區｜語言邊界與標題的遊戲
在空間中，溫金金透過在米袋上塗鴉「展出作品清單」，意在強調作品標題的意義與誤讀的趣味：多以異語命名，留給觀眾解讀與聯想空間。
D區｜畫作
安靜的決鬥：受困於雙腿的人 /The Quiet Duel
夢中寧芙：枕邊雙人像 /Sleeping Nymphs
唾液：風景中的巨大雕像 /Saliva
後記｜Afterword
2023年以來，我一直在為三十歲的個展做準備，節奏不規律仍持續。展覽沒有固定的模式或保證；它們在平凡卻又難以預測的環境中展開：一輛拋錨的汽車，作品擠在後座，沒有空調，32度的夏日。
它們並非經過精心設計，而是經過時間、空間和偶然性的反覆調整。沒有事先要求確定性，也沒有給予任何保證；它們常常是在充滿疑慮的環境中實現的。它們不被追捧，不被市場或演算法追逐，它們不喚起任何期待，也不是為了重複。它們並不依賴於任何預先設定的策略、偽裝或合作。大多數作品都是獨立的，有些作品會意外回歸，如同不速之客般在不同的展覽中重現。無身體人物的繪畫，像一封語氣獨特的電子郵件，一句隨口說出的話，一個模糊的輪廓。有時，語境清晰可辨；有時，它消散成一片噪音。
這些作品帶來的不僅是展覽，更是一種被直面的可能性。這些轉瞬即逝、未經嚴格規劃、常常被忽視的狀態構成了一種私人日記，貫穿展覽和非展覽之中，且從未透露任何完整的自傳。
藝術家簡介｜Biography
溫金金（溫佳寧）是一位來自臺灣的藝術家、圖案T恤設計師與自出版書籍作者。她關注大眾媒體如何塑造角色，並以變形的人體與其內在感受作為創作主體。她的作品融合視覺藝術批評、邊緣酷兒群體的美學策略與視覺散文的語言，構築出個人化的圖像思辨系統。
近年個展包括：2022年《善的意志會狩獵 Good Will Hunting》，描繪女性主義與酷兒理論中享樂政治的爭議地帶；2023年《老鼠並不笨 Of Mice and Women》；2025年《分心的種類 Mind the Mindless》以蘇珊‧桑塔格所提出的坎普（camp）感性為起點，透過酷兒視角持續探索當代圖像的複數閱讀方式。2026至2028年間，她計畫申請於歐洲或其他合適地點舉辦展覽，進一步拓展其創作實踐與跨語境的對話可能。
本展覽及兩冊出版品由國家文化藝術基金會贊助
This exhibition and its two accompanying publications are sponsored by