/ Last Words

—— The article extended the on-site creation Last Words created by Chou Shu-Yi in the exhibition Leave a message ——


Chou Shu-Yi
Last Words

2023
Video; static installation; lighting arrangement


In life, many messages cannot be fully conveyed. What tangible or intangible things can humans leave behind? Is it text, sound, images, or perhaps an object? Are these remnants useless? What purpose do they serve?

The way humans record language development has been changing to this date. It has evolved from verbal expression to written text, from inscriptions on rock walls to bound books. Communications have progressed from signal codes to facsimile conveyance and from digital computers to mobile devices. This transformation spans from the silent to the audible, from physical to virtual, shaping the evolutionary process of transmitting ideas between individuals.

Leaving messages is a form of message recording that conveys information or emotions. It also encompasses many things that are difficult to express face to face. A message can be simple yet it carries complex thoughts and feelings about life.

The messages we transmit and leave behind can sometimes be eternal and timeless, while others may be time-bound. Some of them might not necessarily be useful, and some could be temporary and seemingly pointless. Nevertheless, they all represent voices that once existed, forming a pleasant and well-rounded language.

Last Words was a piece by the artist Chou Shu-Yi, continuing his creative exploration in recent years of issues such as urban peripheries and the vanishing of life.

Here, a space is created to store time, where each object is the evidence of its existence during a particular moment in life. The language messages that were once created and left behind are a form of proof and they could also become relics or memories. What purpose do these objects serve as people and time move on?

If this were the last day of your life, what message would you leave for this world or yourself? Will those once useful messages become worthless or powerless?

The artwork will be placed on a hollow iron frame, existing within a realm of space and time where light and shadows intertwine. The visual pieces will showcase a combination of two videos titled After sea-level rise, I… and Break & Break! capturing and preserving the messages emanating from the human body.

Last Words features videos, static installation, and lighting arrangement. The static installation, as an invitation to viewers, allows individuals to leave messages and objects from a certain period of their life. Facing an ever-changing world, viewers continue the dialogue with the voices they choose to leave behind.

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Cooperation: tamtamART, Project zero

Special thanks to: Yu-jun Wang; William Lu; Max Lee; Chi-wai Lee; Lafin Sawmah; Zhizimom; Wan-yu Lin; Yaman Shao; Yun-ting Hung; Ya-wen Fu; Mercy Yeh; Heidi Yip; Wan-shuan Tsai; Kam-tsuen Tam; James Su; PROJECTbyH.

After sea-level rise, I…was commissioned by the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying).

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Last Words - live performance

Last Words - live performance
7 / 6、7 _ 16：30

A message left to the past of the days gone by
A message left to the present time in the future to come

Time overlaps with time
The present moment is perceived through the viewers' body and in the space
Never-ending questions about purposes and uselessness


Ten months after the launch of Leave A Message on August 9, 2023, Last Words, on the other hand, has also come to the end of its physical exhibition. Through live performance and videos, the project will continue to exist in another dialogue. The body images in the exhibition are the response to the uselessness of life at different stages. The question comes down to how entities regain purpose in a seemingly barren and deserted space. The objects from memory are left on the cold glass iron shelf; with the light changes during the course of a day, reflections bring out the truth of the objects and that shows only in the mirror. In the final live performance, with viewers’ bodies in the space, the status of watching and being watched, as well as the process of moving and staying still, are intertwined with messages in the river of time, with one last look before the end of life.



Video Collection I：Break & Break!

Break & Break! © Jhan Kai
Artist：Chou Shu-Yi 《Break & Break!》




Video Collection II：After sea-level rise, I…

After sea-level rise, I…  © William Lu
Artist：Chou Shu-Yi 《After sea-level rise, I…》 



Move-in team

tamtamART established in Berlin in 2009, and is offering an experimental contemporary art platform, this art space congregates various artists and creations of different domains and disciplines. At the same time, tamtamART and The ASC (The ART SHELTER AND CINEMA) organise OSMOSIS Audiovisual Media Festival together. Their recent projects are the exhibition and screening project “Digital Break: New Perspectives on Taiwanese Moving Image” throughout the UK, 2017, the exhibition “Data Mania” at CCI Fabrika, Moscow, Russia, 2018, and an international and cross-regional exchange exhibition “SUPER-TRAJECTORY” in Tainan, Taiwan and Singapore in 2019 and 2020.

In recent years, tamtamART has continued to participate in the curatorial unit of WHATZ Contemporary Art Fair. The exhibition "Useless Message" (tentative) is involved together by Fu Ya-Wen and Hung Yun-Ting.