/ Video Sandbox III-V：HOUSHENG / POSTLIFE

On view in the “Memory” Gallery on the first floor of ALIEN Art Centre, POSTLIFE is a solo exhibition by artist Chiu Shih-Jen, presented as part of the Video Sandbox program. Continuing the program’s 2025 curatorial theme “Retro Simulator,” the exhibition reflects on the dominance of hyper-realistic digital imagery and technological visual regimes, while redirecting attention to the textures of imperfection, perceptual rupture, and the emotional residues embedded in memory. Taking the concept of “to live only after being placed in the realm of death” as its point of departure, POSTLIFE begins with the reconstruction of virtual memory, examining how memory becomes distorted and fractured as image technologies increasingly approach realism. Within the framework of Retro Simulator, the work no longer pursues representational completeness, but instead reveals the limitations of viewing and recording through instability and perceptual displacement.

In this context, “postlife” no longer refers merely to a temporal “after,” but to a mode of existence emerging at the edge of collapse. As structures of reality loosen, the individual re-senses the self within disorder and incompleteness. Through the interweaving of moving image, language, and botanical elements, the exhibition constructs a field between the virtual and the real, transforming imperfection and decay into a renewed understanding of memory and existence. Rather than reconstructing the past, POSTLIFE responds to the central inquiry of Retro Simulator: when reality itself becomes unstable, how do we reposition ourselves within what remains incomplete?


POSTLIFE

“When everything is pushed to its limit, can we generate again at the edge of collapse — to live only after being placed in the realm of death.”

This exhibition constructs a field between dream and reality. Through the interweaving of image, language, and botanical imagery, it forms a perceptual space where emotion and cognition are rewritten, inviting viewers to reconsider memory, the body, and existence.

The work originated from an experiment in virtual reconstruction. The artist attempted to retrieve fragments of the past through digital imaging and technological processes, allowing them to reappear within a virtual field. However, as the process progressed, the constructed dream began to fracture, revealing a sense of absence:

“In the relentless pursuit of realism, my memories began to distort…”

At this turning point, the artist shifts perspective: when technology approaches the limits of perception, what emerges may not be a summit, but rather an edge where meaning dissolves.

“Postlife” thus refers not to what comes after, but to a possibility that emerges at the brink of void. As everything is pushed to its extreme, the structure of human existence begins to loosen and disintegrate. In this sense, it echoes the idea that meaning is not sustained through stability, but re-anchored at the very edge of collapse.

“It is imperfection that makes us human, and allows us to truly sense the world. There will always be regret, incompleteness, impossibility, and moments that arrive too late…”

POSTLIFE does not attempt to reconstruct a complete past. Instead, it invites a renewed awareness of the present through fragmentation and residue. As fiction and reality intersect and the dream recedes, a fundamental question remains: when everything becomes disordered, what can we leave behind within the limits of our existence?

Content Advisory: This exhibition contains explicit language that may be disturbing to some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.

POSTLIFE: Virtual Reconstruction
Through three “reconstructions,” the work constructs a dream-like virtual field, questioning whether digital space can generate its own forms of perception and consciousness. By blurring the boundary between reality and simulation, it echoes Jean Baudrillard’s notion of simulacra, where the virtual becomes a new mode of existence.

Social Reconstruction
Text in clerical script is spray-painted onto suspended lilies, forming a floating field that gradually decays. The work juxtaposes language and organic life to reflect on the temporality of memory and experience.

Memory Reconstruction
A dual-channel video combines AI-generated family imagery with virtual lilies, presenting memory as a hyperreal construct and pointing to the unstable boundary between the real and the virtual.