Painting Wu's
Neo-expressionist paintings depicted taboos and sensitive subjects that addressed political issues in his early career. Wu's exhibition of
Four Eras (1990) at the
Taipei Fine Arts Museum consisted of four large paintings of political leaders
Chiang Kai-shek,
Chiang Ching-kuo,
Mao Zedong, and
Deng Xiaoping. Each of these large-scale paintings is almost four meters in width. In the portraits, Wu boldly portrayed people's struggles and oppression, and depicted them inside the torsos of the former rulers. By juxtaposing the portraits of the mainland Chinese and the Taiwanese former rulers, Wu intended to generate a new dialogue for the future.
Digital Photography Wu's work delves deeply into Taiwanese identity as he attempts to reveal its hybrid nature. For the series of
A Dream of Spring Night (春宵夢 1994-), he aimed to evoke nostalgia of the past era.
A Dream of Spring Night II (1995) and
IV (1997) were created using mixed-media, including installations. He installed a sepia-colored portrait of a girl based on photograph taken at a photo studio, in a small dark room. The expressionless young girl posed properly with her hands cupping her breasts, hiding her identity by wearing a pair of retro sunglasses. The picture frame was decorated with light bulbs and fake flowers. As a viewer stepped into the room, a pop song from the 1950s called "Happy Sailing" would suddenly start playing, and the light bulbs started flickering along with the rhythm. The 1950s was an important decade for Wu as it symbolized the time when Taiwanese identity was integrated in a flash moment after centuries of colonization. By 2000, Wu's medium shifted from oil painting to digital photography. Wu said, "Before I take a single photograph, I do a rough 3D mapping-out on the computer. I take everything into account right down to the finest details, like the facial expressions, the movement of clothing in the wind and the visual path a viewer will take when perusing the work." and vintage posters, using themes from Chinese myths, folklore, and religion. Wu's theme began to explore social issues based on Taoism, Buddhism, and karma.
Show the Mutual Concern of the People in the Same Boat (2002) is metaphorical as Wu explained that "the belief of Buddhists and Taiwanese people in karma lies behind that artwork." In Wu's work, four paddlers are on a dragon boat with an overcasting sky in the background. Each man resembles a clown as they have white painted faces and wear bright yellow overalls. Their feet are sticking out from the bottom of the boat, trying to maintain balance using wooden shoes that are used in Chinese traditional circus. ==Exhibitions==