Introduction of the artist:

TU Weizheng(China, Taiwan)

Selected solo exhibitions:  2012?Emperor`s Treasure Chest of the City, TKG+ Gallery, Taipei; 2003?The Beauty and Mystery of Bu Num Civilization Revealed, MOCA, Taipei; 2003 Exhibition of Excavation Work at the Bu Num Civilization Site, TNCA, Tainan;
Selected group exhibitions: 2012 9th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; 2012 Roundtable, Gwangju Biennale Foundation
Korea; 2012?Time Games: Contemporary Appropriations of the Past, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei, Taiwan; 2011 Nostalgia, East Asia Contemporary Art Exhibition, Korea Foundation Cultural Center, Seoul, Korea; 2010?By Day, By Night,?or Some Special Things a Museum Can Do, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; 2010 Taiwan Biennial; 2008? Reason's Clue, Queens Museum of Art, New York; 2006?the 6th Shanghai Biennale, China.

Tu Weizheng’s Optical Trick is an on-going series of installations that not only seek to play mechanical and photographic ‘tricks’ but also, and moreso, seek to re-interpret the spirit of contemporary urban lives. To create Happy Birthday, his new installation in Guangzhou, Tu invited four blind children to make wishes for their upcoming birthdays, assisted by the Guangdong Museum of Art’s educational team, along with local volunteers.In response to their wishes, the artist constructed the installation’s components, referencing the contours of what looks like it could have been a grandfather clock, an antique cabinet or a dressing table set with a bronze-plated mirror. The words of the children’s birthday wishes are represented in braille, some engraved on copper sheets and framed by light-boxes, projecting the words like a glittering array of stars, others punctured on metal strips and fed into music boxes, transformed into musical notes. The four parts of the installation are placed around a central skylight, each facing a different direction, as if calling out in a state of anticipation, of longing. On each table, there is a praxinoscope, a simple animation device by which, through the twelve-mirror inner circle of its cylinder, the artist’s drawings of the children can be seen spinning round in a blithe dance. A clock’s pendulum swings without rest, waiting for the hand to strike and the bell to sound, marking the moment when dreams come true.What is the colour of their unseen world? It must be even more hopeful than this visible one. Don’t believe it?
Listen, carefully. !

Introduction of works:

Happy Birthday, installation, 2012

The Emperor’s Treasure Chestes-one, installation, dimensions variable, 2012

Tu Weizheng’s Optical Trick is an on-going series of installations that present mechanical and photographic ‘tricks’ and also seek to re-interpret the spirit of contemporary urban lives. The starting point of his new installation in Guangzhou, Happy Birthday, invited four blind children to make wishes for their forthcoming birthdays, with assistance provided by the educational team of the Guangdong Museum of Art and local volunteers.

In response to the wishes, the artist constructed the installation referencing the look of a grandfather clock, an antique cabinet or a dressing table set with a bronze mirror. The children’s birthday wishes are represented in Braille, some engraved on copper sheets and elaborately framed as light-boxes to map out a glittering array of stars, and others punctured on metal strips as part of the mechanisms of a music boxes that are then transformed into various musical notes. The four parts of the installation are placed around a central skylight facing different directions, waiting and longing. On each table, there is a praxinoscope, a simple animation device where, through the inner circle of twelve mirrors in its cylinder, the artist’s drawings of the children can be viewed spinning into a blithe dance. A clock’s pendulum swings non-stop, whilst waiting for the moment of ringing to mark when dreams come true.

What is the colour of their unseen world? Here, it must be more hopeful than the visible one. Don’t you believe this? Listen, carefully.