Tsui KUANG-YU
In 1996, Tsui Juang-Yu joined the art group p8, which has since carried out a series of performance art events in the form of surveys, tests, word games and impersonations held in urban communities throughout Taiwan. The motivation for these actions was to question otherwise unchallenged aspects of ordinary existence, and to intervene collectively in the structures of everyday life
In addition to expanding on these explorations, Tsui's solo work examines the relationship between the individual's body and his living environment. In the video An Array of Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin, to Penetrate, the Penetrative (2001), for example, he collided head-on with Various objects - sculptures, trees, windows - in outdoor public spaces. The irrational nature of these forceful confrontations, which exaggerated the system of symbols used by society, highlighted the contradictions and absurdity inherent in human adaptation to society, allowing the viewer to make new discoveries regarding social behavior and our biological responses to our surroundings.
Another film series, The Shortcut of Systematic Life / Superficial Circumstance (2002) is comprised of three parts: Superficial Life, I'm Fine, I Didn't Get Wet and City Spirit. For Superficial Life, he filmed himself in a variety of locations - parks, parking lots or rural scenes wearing a series of costumes that he had prepared and which corresponds to the environment, such as the outfit of a cyclist when he rode his bicycle through the city, or of a businessman as he walked through the business district or of a traffic controller as he passed a busy street crossing. "The chameleon like changing of your clothes and outward appearance according to the aura of different environments", he has commented, "serves as an adaptive shortcut to penetrate and transcend different living circles, as an allegorical reaction to the absurdity of the actual environment, and as a mockery of the schizophrenia of a frequently shifting living environment."
http://www.tad.org.tw/c02/c02/020/
Born 1974 in Taipei, Taiwan
Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
"The Short Cut to the Systematic Life: I am fine, I Don't Get Wet, 2002
Single channel video
Courtesy the artist
Single channel video
Courtesy the artist
In 1996, Tsui Juang-Yu joined the art group p8, which has since carried out a series of performance art events in the form of surveys, tests, word games and impersonations held in urban communities throughout Taiwan. The motivation for these actions was to question otherwise unchallenged aspects of ordinary existence, and to intervene collectively in the structures of everyday life
In addition to expanding on these explorations, Tsui's solo work examines the relationship between the individual's body and his living environment. In the video An Array of Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin, to Penetrate, the Penetrative (2001), for example, he collided head-on with Various objects - sculptures, trees, windows - in outdoor public spaces. The irrational nature of these forceful confrontations, which exaggerated the system of symbols used by society, highlighted the contradictions and absurdity inherent in human adaptation to society, allowing the viewer to make new discoveries regarding social behavior and our biological responses to our surroundings.
Another film series, The Shortcut of Systematic Life / Superficial Circumstance (2002) is comprised of three parts: Superficial Life, I'm Fine, I Didn't Get Wet and City Spirit. For Superficial Life, he filmed himself in a variety of locations - parks, parking lots or rural scenes wearing a series of costumes that he had prepared and which corresponds to the environment, such as the outfit of a cyclist when he rode his bicycle through the city, or of a businessman as he walked through the business district or of a traffic controller as he passed a busy street crossing. "The chameleon like changing of your clothes and outward appearance according to the aura of different environments", he has commented, "serves as an adaptive shortcut to penetrate and transcend different living circles, as an allegorical reaction to the absurdity of the actual environment, and as a mockery of the schizophrenia of a frequently shifting living environment."
http://www.tad.org.tw/c02/c02/020/