We are pleased to present The Space Warriors and the Digigrave, the first solo exhibition by Su Hui-Yu in the gallery.
From 1984 to 1987, one of the only three government TV channels in Taiwan, CTS, broadcasted “Space Warriors”, an outlandish sci-fi superhero series adapted from the Japanese series “Super Sentai” and “Gavan”. After a three-year run, CTS stopped broadcasting the series due to low ratings, unstable production quality, and bad reviews, as well as the rise of VHS and cable TV, which allowed for the original Japanese shows to be watched in Taiwan. “Space Warriors” was a tonkatsu, a Japanese genre that features live action wacky characters and colourful special effects, aimed mostly at children and teenage audiences. The series combined fantasy and folk tales with a nationalist undercurrent, with hints of Confucianism and chauvinism during the last years of Martial law in Taiwan.
In recent years, Su Hui-Yu has employed the approach of “re-shooting” as a method to create new works. The method consists of shooting new films based on old ones in order too review and reflect on history. Through this method, Su revisits past, unfinished, tabooed, and misunderstood figures, events, and things. In Space Warriors and the Digigrave, Su has applied the re-shooting method to revisit the collective memory of the sci-fi genre in Taiwan, and has created a series of works that conform this solo exhibition.