Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

With his outstanding wit and humor, TSUI Kuang-yu measured and criticized urban cultures by researching on particular cities and employing local resources. He presented the paradox between urban regularities and lifestyles, fully demonstrating a poetic sense of absurdity.

His work incorporates a consistent quality which becomes even more resilient despite the temporal and spatial transformation. This maturity in his works offer great capacity of anticipation in his future development.

It is the jury's unanimous decision to award TSUI Kuang-yu with the Visual Arts Award to honor the outstanding quality of his work and creative ideas. 

Jury’s Comments for the Visual Arts Award

With gestures straight out of a Buster Keaton film, Kuang-yu TSUI's short videos always make us burst into laughter while inspiring us to think about various compulsive symptoms of the present. In this exhibition, he displayed several works completed during his residency in Amsterdam and his participation in the Liverpool Biennial.

The new work proposes a new cross-cultural vision. By using special props and studying the urban landscape, he applies the very own style of ease and out-of-time humor to sarcastically share his nervous reaction toward the over-systematic life and the concealment of fear in modern times.  (Committee member/ Chi-ming LIN)

With expertise on conceptual video art, Kuang-yu Tsui records his funny performance in his social surroundings. The repeated actions eventually evolve into a ridiculous and even meaningless, uncontrollable compulsiveness and a tragic solemnity. These characteristics can be particularly seen in his earlier works in the exhibition. In his later works developed during the oversea visits, he transforms himself into a clown who questions some of the local routines and the unspeakable topics. However, who is the ridiculous one? Reality? The self?  Or an artist who has problems adapting to the local life? His consistent style of seriousness and straight-face comedy gives extra depth to the silliness of the work.  (Committee member/ Hai-ming HUANG)

Artwork Introduction

Artist Tsui Kuang-yu gained international recognition with his slapstick action video series titled “The Shortcut to the Systematic Life” (2002 to 2006) in which he as both performer and video director, adapts, through the process of mimesis, much like a chameleon adapts, to become part of his new environment. Whether in Taipei, Liverpool, London or Amsterdam, Tsui shows us that it is possible to fit into the world and to adapt ourselves to live in a chaotic urban environment, even though our attempts may be like his documented ones: absurd, comical and futile.

Tsui is nominated for “The Shortcut to the Systematic Life” (2002 to 2006) that was exhibited at Eslite Gallery, August 2007 and which shows his development from adapting to the environment to directly confronting the urban system head-on. His videos of staged and rehearsed documentations in which he uses his body to repeat movements speak about the absurdity of our customs and social values. To engage in such a crafty and expedient way with the environment is what Tsui calls a ‘shortcut.’ Yet, Tsui’s performative actions could be seen as an objective measurement of his immediate cultural surroundings.

In the earlier work, Tsui mimics an animal’s ability for mimicry, as he easily fits into diverse social situations like blending in with an elderly group of exercisers by quickly changing his outfit to match theirs. In his later work, Tsui considers the histories and urban planning of the European cities in which he worked. He reconfigures the usage of overlooked parts of urban sprawl in Liverpool, such as non-pedestrian areas into Chinese-style reflexology foot paths, whereas in Amsterdam, his spurting water outfit is a reminder to Amsterdam’s past and its previous sea level. Besides adapting, Tsui is also exposing the various realities in our social fabric.

About the Artist

About Tsui Kuang-yuArtist Tsui Kuang-yu received his BFA from the National Institute of the Arts (Taipei National University of the Arts) in 1997. He gained international recognition with his slapstick action video series titled “The Shortcut to the Systematic Life” (2002 to 2006) in which he both performs and directs. Since then, his video work has been shown in various exhibitions around the world including the Liverpool, Taipei and Venice Biennales.

He won the Taishin Arts Award “Jury’s Special Award” in 2003. In 2004 he was resident artist at Gasworks Studio in London and at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in 2006-7.

Because of his outstanding work, he is now a proud owner of a Taishin Arts Award Jury's Special Award (2003) and a Visual Arts Award (2007).