text by Kuo Sin-Sin
Among those people and things that are neglected in the world, Chou Yu-Cheng, who does not want to be formalized by any arts, takes bits by bits from those ignored, and submerged real situation as his creative reflection. Therefore, his works are opposed to those provoked exotic romance and impractical association, in the name of art. His works have assembled plots, extensions and tricks, which extract out the "epiphany" of the reality as if the water were drained out of a semi-submerged ship. This has exposed the cultural emptiness that relies on social perspectives so that the presentation of works would have new events to occur.
THE event started from an advertisement for recruitment.
"Temporary workers wanted. Age: better around 50 to 60 years old. Working period: from February to March. Workplace: on Zhonghua Road, Taipei. Please contact Mr. Chou if you are interested."
Chou Yu-Cheng had answered numerous telephone calls applying for this job. This had started when he put an ad in the newspaper so as to seek for one middle-aged unemployed man. In his project, Chou Yu-Cheng would employ two men. One was Mr. Lu, the temporary worker recruited from the newspaper; the other one was in charge of written record. In the first month, Chou Yu-Cheng and the recorder interviewed, while chatting, with Mr. Lu about the ordinary stories from his youth till now. At the same time, the book, A working History Lu Jie-De, which was compiled by the recorder and later printed out, was presented in the exhibition hall. In the second month, Mr. Lu worked as the security guard at the exhibition where this project was announced. In Chou Yu-Cheng’s latest art creation, he said, “Economy do not need to be talked about, yet it ought to start right from hiring unemployed people. This is the best action to boost productive economic power. In addition, from this act of the recruitment advertisement, we will notice the phenomenon that how many people need jobs in our society.” The creative style of such exhibition exhibited in the exhibition was not his first time to use on creation. However, such presentation is totally different from the renewable, replicate and reproductive organization in the past. This time, Chou Yu-Chen had the real object, the temporary worker, that is, Mr. Lu, break out of the shell and got rid of the "epiphany." This has marked out a way of perception, that close relationship with the original is unique and persistent. It has fully demonstrated the meaning of equality.
Perhaps his art creation focuses no other purposes but only to expose the clues. In his early work “Superficialness,” on the TV wall the popular symbols of the media effect were being played. It conveyed a metaphor of the media conspiracy of receiving voluntarily and being forced to possess. Later on, in the work, “TOA Lighting” and " Rainbow Paint,” he had, on purpose, offered proposals to business owners for sponsorship of their products. He used their brand names as the titles of the exhibitions. He had deliberately marked out commercialization, in a very straight forward way. Isn’t this ironical towards the twists and turns of today's placement marketing? Alternatively, artists can also become a link of the economic creation. When Chou Yu-Cheng pointed out the issue on the lighting of the exhibition space, he announced that “TOA Lighting” provided the exhibition venue with good lighting effect. When the white paint on the walls was not real "white," his "Rainbow Paint” would tell you the definition of white. Having contradiction and forgery as his important elements, Chou Yu-Cheng’s works presented no oppression, yet, every moment, they were full of tough conflicts and the most thorough confronting contradiction. He tried to make every work an event whereas the event he left behind was the real evidence, a very secretive project of art. Hypothetically, I speculate that he would like people to understand his works in a specific way in order to catch up with its more profound meaning. If the viewers themselves are aware enough, they are supposed to follow this very certain route.
Chou Yu-Cheng started from himself. The epiphany of creation appeared like “Designer's Brilliance,” the name of 64-color crayons, which his mother brought back from the United States when he was little. He organizes the structures with design and announces his intention with thoughts of art. Years had passed, and the old broken crayon box demonstrates the interesting trick of his exhibition "Very Hard." He attaches much importance to the use and application of the original media. This sounds like the artist, Moholy-Nagy, who once said that new "creative potential is often included in the old forms, tools and types. At first, these old things appeared decrepit and out of date when contrasting with the appearance of new things. However, under the oppression of new things, they will show the moment of supernatural power and seize the last chance to shine."
Cacao Vol.6, 2012.03 |
