Tiffany Sia
Tiffany Sia’s solo exhibition at FELIX GAUDLITZ features works that interrogate the haptics of screen and print in the ordinary and extraordinary appearances of landscape as image. Exploring mediums and hybrid forms across film/video, photography, and readymade sculpture, Sia engages with each form—and its combined iterations—to make alternative paths to encounter the sublime, drawing a sense of disorientation and unease towards the genre.
As the show draws a reflection on “minor landscapes,” Sia implicitly constructs a counter to a national cannon of “major landscapes” that are multiple. Both idiosyncratic to Chinese landscape painting (shan shui) and also landscape imagery as it exists transnationally in such examples as European or American landscape art, such images service respective canonical imaginations of the pastoral, often reinforcing national and cultural identity. The show’s use of the word “minor” takes inspiration from Sianne Ngai’s Ugly Feelings, a book that illuminates minor feelings or “unprestigious” ones “over grander passions like anger and fear…. As well as over potentially ennobling or morally beatific states like sympathy, melancholia, and shame.” Instead, what Ngai locates as critical and primary are feelings that are “noncathartic, offering no satisfaction of virtue, however, oblique, nor any therapeutic or purifying release.” These works put forth a notion of the “anti-sublime.” Producing an alternative relation between landscape art, feeling and the viewer, Sia draws attention to how we may learn to see, or unsee, such vistas, attempting to assert a sense of unease, disorientation, and induce a state of feeling vaguely unsettled.
Minor Landscapes #1 and Minor Landscapes #2 are part sculptural and photographic works that show an upside-down landscape image taken in analog 35mm film, printed and shown in a lightbox. These uncanny images are digitally printed and mounted on an acrylic lightbox housed in a metal frame, which allows light to leak from the side to create a halo around its edges. A display system mirroring decor found in Chinese-American restaurants across the United States, the work plays with fantasies of landscape and the sublime circulated in commonplace settings meant to invoke culture or place. The ubiquity of these images in the style they are shown belie the dense narratives and histories implied, and Sia’s use of a ready-made-form attempts to undo the loaded genre of its ordinariness. Taken in the outer islands of Hong Kong, these tropic compositions of landscape art are restaged, observing smog and mountains in a setting atypical to where one might find a quintessential “Chinese” landscape. The grain of celluloid stretched against pixels creates a slight distortion and imperfection of these images that make up their texture.
“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” Marshall McLuhan once observed, “People never want to live in the present. People live in the rearview mirror because it’s safer… they’ve been there before, they feel comfortable.” A rearview mirror, suspended in space from the ceiling, is angled and adjacent to the lightbox works. Facing a window onto a courtyard of the gallery, the work features a videostream component inside the mirror, typically used as a back-up cam in a car. Sia programmed the rearview mirror to play a recorded live-stream video by the Taiwanese Taoyuan tourism bureau, which screens a constant 24-7 live-broadcast of a mountain vista and sweeps periodically to a popular scenic destination, the Xiao Wulai Waterfall. While the particles that make up a waterfall are ever-changing, its shape and image is constant. As it swells in the summer months, or slows between periods of rain. Baudrillard describes the vistas around waterfalls, such as Iguazu in Argentina, as “catwalks leading” to the waterfall “like cinematic arms,” or “optical tentacles approaching the liquid chaos.” Viewing the waterfall requires ascending or descending around its natural features, mirrored by the poetic gesture of the live-stream as the robotic camera’s gaze moves sporadically from waterfall to mountain. Oriented towards the gallery window, the viewer may observe a glint of reflection from the mirror as they do the changing light from outside.
Playing in loop in saxpublishers is Sia’s new short film, What Rules The Invisible (2022) that upturns archival travelog footage shot in Hong Kong. Spanning reappropriated amateur footage across the 20th century, the sojourner’s gaze—distanced, distorted and even voyeuristic—shows tropes and patterns. The same shots repeat across decades, from landscape to cityscape to street scenes. Sometimes the footage reveals more about the traveler himself, such as a sequence where the camera curiously tracks the hips and bare legs of women wearing cheongsam crossing a busy intersection. Sia’s essay film studies these travelogs to find indignant subjects glaring back at the camera, or figures on the edges of the frame who appear pixelated and phantasmic, showing the patina of the footage’s circulation. Meanwhile, intertitles intermittently punctuate this footage with an oral history of Hong Kong, as told by Sia’s mother who describes colonial police, excrement, and hauntings in Kowloon of the postwar era. The viewer is left to imagine these scenes there are no images for.
![](/site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.600x0.jpg?v=63beae14 600w, /site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.900x0.jpg?v=62654528 900w, /site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1200x0.jpg?v=646e1b25 1200w, /site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1500x0.jpg?v=6265452a 1500w, /site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1800x0.jpg?v=633488ce 1800w, /site/assets/files/3886/felix-gaudlitz_fig-838_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.2200x0.jpg?v=63948231 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.600x0.jpg?v=65b0f4e9 600w, /site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.900x0.jpg?v=651eb71b 900w, /site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1200x0.jpg?v=626546bb 1200w, /site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1500x0.jpg?v=645f6aca 1500w, /site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1800x0.jpg?v=626546be 1800w, /site/assets/files/3937/felix-gaudlitz_fig-840_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.2200x0.jpg?v=626546be 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.600x0.jpg?v=65e071eb 600w, /site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.900x0.jpg?v=6334841d 900w, /site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.1200x0.jpg?v=633d9328 1200w, /site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.1500x0.jpg?v=653beed7 1500w, /site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.1800x0.jpg?v=6334843a 1800w, /site/assets/files/3865/felix-gaudlitz_fig-841_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1_web.2200x0.jpg?v=6265453e 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscape #1, 2022, Digital print mounted on acrylic, customized light box, 90 × 180 × 10 cm (35,433 × 70,866 × 3,937 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3927/felix-gaudlitz_fig-843_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1-_detail_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=626546bf 600w, /site/assets/files/3927/felix-gaudlitz_fig-843_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1-_detail_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=63efb128 900w, /site/assets/files/3927/felix-gaudlitz_fig-843_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1-_detail_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=653e375c 1200w, /site/assets/files/3927/felix-gaudlitz_fig-843_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_1-_detail_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=63c7f635 1334w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscape #1, 2022 (Detail), Digital print mounted on acrylic, customized light box, 90 × 180 × 10 cm (35,433 × 70,866 × 3,937 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.600x0.jpg?v=6334841e 600w, /site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.900x0.jpg?v=6265453f 900w, /site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.1200x0.jpg?v=6334b4a5 1200w, /site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.1500x0.jpg?v=6338c8ea 1500w, /site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.1800x0.jpg?v=62654543 1800w, /site/assets/files/3862/felix-gaudlitz_fig-844_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2_web.2200x0.jpg?v=63348427 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscape #2, 2022, Digital print mounted on acrylic, customized light box, 90 × 180 × 10 cm (35,433 × 70,866 × 3,937 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3889/felix-gaudlitz_fig-846_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2-_detail_web.600x0.jpg?v=633577bb 600w, /site/assets/files/3889/felix-gaudlitz_fig-846_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2-_detail_web.900x0.jpg?v=626546c6 900w, /site/assets/files/3889/felix-gaudlitz_fig-846_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2-_detail_web.1200x0.jpg?v=6362585e 1200w, /site/assets/files/3889/felix-gaudlitz_fig-846_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_minor-landscape-_2-_detail_web.1500x0.jpg?v=643a8573 1334w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscape #1, 2022 (Detail), Digital print mounted on acrylic, customized light box, 90 × 180 × 10 cm (35,433 × 70,866 × 3,937 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.600x0.jpg?v=6334848b 600w, /site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.900x0.jpg?v=63c7f636 900w, /site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1200x0.jpg?v=64381ce5 1200w, /site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1500x0.jpg?v=65cf52de 1500w, /site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.1800x0.jpg?v=6335f786 1800w, /site/assets/files/3876/felix-gaudlitz_fig-847_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web.2200x0.jpg?v=62654532 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=63348427 600w, /site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=626546cb 900w, /site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=65b0f274 1200w, /site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=6334a767 1500w, /site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=626546cf 1800w, /site/assets/files/3928/felix-gaudlitz_fig-848_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=633483f7 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3866/felix-gaudlitz_fig-850_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web.600x0.jpg?v=6430196c 600w, /site/assets/files/3866/felix-gaudlitz_fig-850_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web.900x0.jpg?v=62654546 900w, /site/assets/files/3866/felix-gaudlitz_fig-850_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web.1200x0.jpg?v=62654548 1200w, /site/assets/files/3866/felix-gaudlitz_fig-850_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web.1500x0.jpg?v=62654548 1334w)
Tiffany Sia, Antipodes, 2022, Rewired rearview mirror with video stream recording, 26 × 7.5 × 9cm (10,236 × 2,952 × 3,543 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=64807e15 600w, /site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=64ef61d2 900w, /site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=626546d2 1200w, /site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=626546d3 1500w, /site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=626546d4 1800w, /site/assets/files/3929/felix-gaudlitz_fig-851_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=626546d4 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Antipodes, 2022 (Detail), Rewired rearview mirror with video stream recording, 26 × 7.5 × 9cm (10,236 × 2,952 × 3,543 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=633581d3 600w, /site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=63776eb4 900w, /site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=626546d7 1200w, /site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=626546d8 1500w, /site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=63348462 1800w, /site/assets/files/3930/felix-gaudlitz_fig-854_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_antipodes-_detail_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=65465f42 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Antipodes, 2022 (Detail), Rewired rearview mirror with video stream recording, 26 × 7.5 × 9cm (10,236 × 2,952 × 3,543 in), Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=6334843b 600w, /site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=6334a759 900w, /site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=63777605 1200w, /site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=6605530c 1500w, /site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=64526b94 1800w, /site/assets/files/3931/felix-gaudlitz_fig-855_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=647729f3 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=626546e2 600w, /site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=626546e3 900w, /site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=626546e4 1200w, /site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=626546e5 1500w, /site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=626546e7 1800w, /site/assets/files/3932/felix-gaudlitz_fig-856_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=626546e7 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3933/felix-gaudlitz_fig-858_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=626546e9 600w, /site/assets/files/3933/felix-gaudlitz_fig-858_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=626546ea 900w, /site/assets/files/3933/felix-gaudlitz_fig-858_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=626546ec 1200w, /site/assets/files/3933/felix-gaudlitz_fig-858_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_installation-view_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=626546ec 1334w)
Tiffany Sia, Minor Landscapes, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
![](/site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=6394821f 600w, /site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=626546ef 900w, /site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=6334843c 1200w, /site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=655dea87 1500w, /site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=641b2856 1800w, /site/assets/files/3934/felix-gaudlitz_fig-859_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=6676c8cc 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, What Rules The Invisible, 2022, HD Video, Sound, 9:50 min., Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=626546f4 600w, /site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=636bc2f1 900w, /site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=626546f6 1200w, /site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=65351675 1500w, /site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=626546f9 1800w, /site/assets/files/3935/felix-gaudlitz_fig-860_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=626546f9 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, What Rules The Invisible, 2022, HD Video, Sound, 9:50 min., Ed. 3 + 2 AP
![](/site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.600x0.jpg?v=626546fa 600w, /site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.900x0.jpg?v=636b9723 900w, /site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1200x0.jpg?v=63bef500 1200w, /site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1500x0.jpg?v=633484b2 1500w, /site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.1800x0.jpg?v=6335ece9 1800w, /site/assets/files/3936/felix-gaudlitz_fig-861_2022_tiffany-sia_minor-landscapes_what-rules-the-invisbile_web-1.2200x0.jpg?v=626546ff 2000w)
Tiffany Sia, What Rules The Invisible, 2022, HD Video, Sound, 9:50 min., Ed. 3 + 2 AP
Photography: kunst-dokumentation.com