Yao Jui-Chung
姚瑞中
Yao Jui-Chung in 2011
Born1969
Taipei, Taiwan
NationalityTaiwanese
EducationNational Institute of the Arts
Websitewww.yaojuichung.com

Yao Jui-Chung (Chinese: 姚瑞中; pinyin: Yáo Ruìzhōng; born 1969) is a Taiwanese artist, writer, educator, and curator.[1] Yao is considered a leading photographer and pioneer of contemporary art in Taiwan,[2] whose work spans photography, painting, performance, and installation.[3] Yao gained recognition after representing Taiwan at the Venice Biennale in 1997,[4] and his work documenting abandoned public buildings has influenced government policy.[5] The Yao Jui-Chung Archive of Taiwan Contemporary Art is housed at the Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art at Cornell University.[6]

Biography

Yao Jui-Chung was born in 1969 in Taipei, Taiwan. Yao's mother was born in Taiwan, while his father, Yao Dong-sheng, was a prominent literati figure, ink-wash painter, government official, and army officer from Changzhou, China, who joined the Kuomintang's retreat to Taiwan in 1949.[1][3][7]

Yao studied at the National Institute of the Arts in Taipei from 1990 to 1994, graduating with a degree in art theory, after which he served for two years in the Air Force.[3][4]

Yao Jui-Chung lives in Taipei and works as an artist and as an associate professor at National Taiwan Normal University.

Career

Yao Jui-Chung was among the first generation of artists to emerge after the end of martial law in Taiwan in 1987.[8] Following the first nativist movement in the 1970s, and the new wave of Taiwanese cinema and theater in the 1980s, artists in the 1990s took a more critical approach in their work.[9] Artists such as Wu Tien-chang, Mei Dean-E, and Yao Jui-Chung focused on re-evaluating Taiwan's history, language, and local culture.[10] The generation of so-called "New New Humans" raised on consumerism and pop culture prompted Yao's New Human Species manifesto, which called on young artists to become more self-aware by developing a 'new aesthetics' and 'identity consciousness'.[3]

After early forays into figurative painting and collage, Yao abandoned these media in favor of photography, environmental interventions, and installation art.[3] He embarked on a decades-long project Roaming Around the Ruins (1991–2011), photographing abandoned buildings, temples, and monuments around Taiwan.[11] In 1992, Yao co-founded the theater collective 'Ta Na Experimental Group',[4] and in 1994 he was the art director on Edward Yang's film A Confucian Confusion.[12] In 1998, Yao published the book Beyond Humanity documenting ruins in Taiwan.[13] In 2006, he co-founded the artist-run space VT Artsalon.[12]

Action Series

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Yao created a series of works using satire to probe the absurdities of history, politics, and the Taiwan–China relationship.[4] In 1994, Yao placed an advertisement in a local arts magazine proclaiming that he would "Attack and Occupy Taiwan," and proceeded to photograph himself urinating at various sites around the island associated with Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese colonialism. From these performances he created Territory Takeover (1994), consisting of six gold-framed photographs hung above six gold-painted toilet bowls.[3][4] The art critic Eric Lin has described this work as a "watershed moment" in contemporary art from Taiwan.[1]

After China opened to tourists from Taiwan, Yao photographed himself hovering in mid-air in front of various Chinese monuments for the series Recover Mainland China (1994–1996).[14] Other so-called "action" works include World is For All (1997–2000) which deals with the Chinese diaspora and Chinatowns around the world, Long March (2002) which re-visits locations of the Red Army's military retreat,[3] as well as Liberating Taiwan (2007), which is based on military propaganda posters and features Yao dressed as a Chinese Red Army soldier floating in front of models of famous landmarks.[15]

Taiwan Taiwan: Facing Faces

By the mid-1990s, international art fairs had become important venues for promoting Taiwan's identity as a democratic and tolerant society.[4] Five artists were selected for the Taiwan Pavilion at the 1997 Venice Biennale, among them Chen Chien-pei, Lee Ming-tse, Wang Jun-jieh, Wu Tien-chang, and Yao Jui-Chung.[16] The exhibition, titled Taiwan Taiwan: Facing Faces, included a range of mixed media, photography, digital art, and installations.[17] Yao elected to re-install his 1994 work Territory Takeover, with a sculpture of a U.S. aircraft carrier as a new centerpiece, in reference to the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis.[18][19]

Lost Society Documentation

After the 2000s, Yao stopped featuring himself as a satirical presence in his photographic works, but continued to photograph various ruins and religious sites.[11] The series Long Live (2011) highlights abandoned military installations,[20][21] Incarnation (2016–2022) documents religious statues,[12] and Hell Plus (2018–2019) features instant film photos of Taoist or Buddhist dioramas depicting purgatory.[22]

For a project titled LSD – Lost Society Documentation, Yao together with over one hundred students from local universities photographed some 300 so-called "mosquito halls" (abandoned public buildings) across Taiwan.[23] The photos garnered significant public interest,[5][24] and Taiwan Premier Wu Den-yih promised to address the issue.[25] The results of the project were published in a book Mirage—Disused Public Property in Taiwan (2010–2016).[14]

New Chinese Ink Art

Yao had started drawing with ballpoint pens while in the military,[7] and created his first large-scale series of Biro drawings Beyond the Blue Sky (1997) while in residency at Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco.[4] This and later series like The Cynic (2004) depict strange and demonic creatures and scatological motifs, and often employ wordplay and false cognates for political satire. The works proved controversial for certain audiences, and were once censored from the Shanghai International Art Fair in 2007,[26] and from an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei.[4]

At an arts residency at Glenfiddich distillery in 2007, Yao began a series of drawings deconstructing Chinese Shan shui painting, using fine point oil pen on handmade paper with gold leaf to create colorful landscapes that include both contemporary and autobiographical elements.[4][27][18][28] Yao has described this as a "turning point"[29] in his artistic approach and as a "new Chinese ink art" that avoids traditional ink wash painting techniques and embraces "unrefined" or "vulgar" themes and local customs.[3] The art critic Wu Chieh-hsiang has described Yao's technique in terms of its "unprecedentedly original methods."[1]

Archive

The Cornell University Library's Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, founded in 2002, houses the Yao Jui-Chung Archive of Contemporary Taiwanese Art.[30] The collection includes Yao's artwork, donations of Taiwanese performance and video art,[11] as well as 8000 digitized images of exhibition marketing materials that the artist has collected since 1989.[6]

Exhibitions

Yao has participated in numerous international exhibitions as both an artist and curator. He has exhibited photographic work at the 2010 Taipei Biennial,[25] the 2014 Venice Biennale of Architecture,[18][31] Insert2014 in New Delhi,[32][33][34] and the 2018 Shanghai Biennale.[35] His biro and gold leaf pieces were featured in the Ink Remix exhibition at Canberra Museum and Gallery in 2015.[36]

Yao's solo exhibition Republic of Cynic (2020) at Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab featured video and installations touching on historical events from Apollo 11 to Tank Man.[20] Yao curated the 2020 Taiwan Biennial, titled Sub Zoology, which examined human–animal relationships in religion, philosophy, art, and science.[22][37][38]

Awards

  • 2013 Multitude Foundation Art Prize (Hong Kong)[39]
  • 2014 APB Foundation Signature Art Prize People's Choice Award (Singapore)[18]
  • 2017 Taishin Arts Award (Taiwan)[22][12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Lin, Eric (April 2011). "Subverting Historical Orthodoxies—Artist and Author Yao Jui-chung". Taiwan Panorama. 36 (4). Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  2. ↑ Warren, Lynne (2005). Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography. New York: Routledge. p. 278.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McIntyre, Sophie (2023). "Real Fiction: The Art of Yao Jui-Chung". Yao Jui-Chung. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess. pp. 6–59.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 McIntyre, Sophie. Imagining Taiwan: The Role of Art in Taiwan's Quest for Identity (1987–2010). Brill Publishers.
  5. 1 2 Shih, Hsiu-Chuan (9 October 2010). "Group draws attention to 'mosquito hall' issue". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  6. 1 2 Murray, Timothy (2012). "Future Perfect: The Archival Event on the Scene of Asian Intermediality". In Bathrick, David; Preußer, Heinz-Peter (eds.). Inter- and Transmedial Literature. Brill. pp. 325–341.
  7. 1 2 Hou, Hanru (2023). "Possibilities in a Pre-Apocalyptic Future". Yao Jui-Chung. Zurich: Scheidegger & Spiess. pp. 60–77.
  8. ↑ Tung, Wei Hsiu (2013). Art for Social Change and Cultural Awakening. Lexington Books.
  9. ↑ Hsu, Manray (1999). "Faces of Time: Two Generations of Taiwan Contemporary Art". Face to Face: Contemporary Art from Taiwan. Gold Coast City Art Gallery.
  10. ↑ McIntyre, Sophie (February 2008). "A Space in Time: Reflections on Developments in Contemporary Art in Taiwan". Yishu Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. 7 (1): 106.
  11. 1 2 3 Murray, Timothy (2013). "In Conversation: Yao Jui-Chung and Timothy Murray". In Miranda, Maria (ed.). Surface Tension Supplement No. 6: Unsightly Aesthetics: Uncertain Practices in Contemporary Art. Errant Bodies Press.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "The World is an Avalanche of Ridicule". Imageart: 136–143. August 2018.
  13. ↑ Tsai, Emily Shu-hui. "The Virtual Theater of Belief and Events: On Remnants of Beings in Yao, Jui-Chung's Photographic Collection, Beyond Humanity". ATINer's Conference Paper Series (ART2012-0256).
  14. 1 2 Clarke, David (2019). China—Art—Modernity. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 176–178.
  15. ↑ Sloat, Ben (Winter 2010). "State of Exception: Contemporary Photography from Taiwan". Aperture (201): 56.
  16. ↑ Gao, Minglu; Bryson, Norman, eds. (1998). Inside/out: New Chinese Art. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. p. 207.
  17. ↑ Schoeber, Felix (2008). "Re-writing education: 'learning to be Taiwanese'?". In Shih, Fang-Long (ed.). Re-writing art in Taiwan: Secularism, universalism, globalization, or modernity and the aesthetic object. Routledge. p. 170–173.
  18. 1 2 3 4 Gao, Pat (July 2016). "Beyond Ink and Paper – The Art of Yao Jui-Chung". Taiwan Panorama. pp. 112–120. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  19. ↑ Cheng, Zoe (December 2006). "An Insular Absurdity". Taiwan Review. pp. 52–57.
  20. 1 2 Xin Ran, Fan (27 July 2020). "Yao Jui-Chung's Cynical Republic". Ocula. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  21. ↑ Bird, Thomas (1 August 2019). "Taiwan's brutal White Terror period revisited on Green Island: confronting demons inside a former prison". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  22. 1 2 3 Cheung, Han (26 August 2021). "Polaroids from hell". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  23. ↑ Ter, Dana (21 September 2014). "Investigative art". Taipei Times. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  24. ↑ Apostol, Corina L.; Thompson, Nato, eds. (2019). Making Another World Possible. Routledge. pp. 214–215.
  25. 1 2 Hanson, Ron (6 September 2011). "Artist at Work: Yao Jui-chung". Afterall. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  26. ↑ Carter, Blake (15 March 2009). "Care To Join The Party?". Taipei Times. pp. 13–14. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  27. ↑ Krischer, Olivier (March 2016). "Questioning the ink paradigm Sophie McIntyre in conversation". Art Monthly Australasia (287): 46–49.
  28. ↑ Kendzulak, Susan (8 November 2007). "Inspired by scotch". Taipei Times. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  29. ↑ Chen, Hui-Chiao (2017). Springs Eternal: Glenfiddich Artists in Residence – 12 Years from Taiwan. Taipei: IT Park Gallery.
  30. ↑ Murray, Timothy (2018). "New Media Arts: Creativity on the Way to the Archive". In Sayers, Jentery (ed.). The Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities. Routledge.
  31. ↑ Boano, Camillo (2018). The Ethics of a Potential Urbanism: Critical Encounters Between Giorgio Agamben and Architecture. Routledge. p. 43.
  32. ↑ Lavakare, Jyoti Pande (25 February 2014). "An Art Event Incorporates Itself in the Spaces of New Delhi". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  33. ↑ Ali, Meher (17 January 2014). "Artist as initiator". Time Out Dehli.
  34. ↑ Shepley, Alex (2018). "Idiosyncratic Spaces and Uncertain Practices: Drawing, Drifting and Sweeping Lines Through the Sand". In Gørrill, Helen; Journeaux, Jill (eds.). Collective and Collaborative Drawing in Contemporary Practice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 168–169.
  35. ↑ d'Arenberg, Diana (1 December 2018). "Cuauhtémoc Medina". Ocula. Retrieved 21 March 2023.
  36. ↑ Colley, Clare (2 July 2015). "Ink Remix art from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong opens at Canberra Museum and Gallery". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  37. ↑ Liao, Lynn (14 November 2020). "Subzoology @ Taichung's National Taiwan Museum Of Fine Arts". The Taiwan Times. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  38. ↑ "The Grand Debut of Subzoology: 2020 Taiwan Biennial". Art Asia Pacific. 12 December 2020.
  39. ↑ Whitehead, Kate (12 May 2013). "All talk, and action too". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 22 March 2023.

Hell is the Main Attraction: A Photo Essay by Yao Jui-chung

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