Artist
Yao Jui-chung
Via Taipei, Taiwan
Yao Jui-chung is an artist specializing in photography, installation and painting. The themes of his works are varied, but most importantly they examine the absurdity of the human condition. In recent years, he has created photo installations, combining the style of the “gold and green landscape” with the superstitions that permeate Taiwanese folklore to express a false and alienated “cold reality” that is specific to Taiwan. One of his ongoing projects is Mirage: Disused Public Property in Taiwan, in which he has assembled photos of ruins and failed public construction projects to reveal the political and economic situation in Taiwan hidden behind the trends of globalization. Other representative works in his “Action Series” explore Taiwan’s identity in Military Take Over (1994), subvert modern Chinese political myths in Recovering Mainland China (1997) and examine post-colonialism in The World Is for All (1997–2000) and Long March–Shifting the Universe (2002). Yao has represented Taiwan at the Venice Biennale and has also participated in the International Triennial of Contemporary Art Yokohama, APT6, Taipei Biennial, Shanghai Biennial and Biennale Online. He is also a published critic and curator and currently teaches at the National Taiwan Normal University.
