Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist

Consisting of lighting fixtures that appear to be Minimalist art, Chou, Yu-Cheng’s installation “TOA Lighting” at the Hong Gah Museum highlights a gap between commodity and sponsorship, and also how Chou acted as an unseen intermediary in this relationship. At first it seems the artist’s role has vanished from the venue which contains only lights, but actually Chou created a parallel exhibition entitled “Hong Gah Museum” by painting a likeness of the installation in an adjacent gallery. While declaring his creative authority, Chou nimbly deals with different types of organizations, makes resources circulate, creates relationships, and brilliantly integrates art into the operation of social systems, creating the expectation that artists can envision other possible conceptions of social interaction. Committee member: Chen, Hung-Hsing

In CHOU Yu-Cheng’s project, the artist not only reflects upon the art system and how it functions in itself, but also crosses the border and acts as a producer of resources for the society. Within his minimalistic and precise approach, CHOU Yu-Cheng displays all ingredients of an artwork and the surrounding art system (e.g. space, walls, light, painting etc). In a second step, his conceptual installation functions as a transmitter for a trading process on different levels. The unique quality of this work, therefore, lies in it’s ability to act like a “virus” that questions and fuels art and society at the same time. Committee members:Yuji Akimoto / Stephan Berg / Chen, Hung-Yi / Lin, Ping.  

Artwork Introduction

 “TOA Lighting” is a series of solo conceptual art exhibitions, through which the artist discusses the theme from the perspective of economic positions. “TOA Lighting” was specially designed for the Hong-Gah Museum. Chou’s works are embedded with a certain dosage of criticism, yet they have also created a new relationship and status for the artist and his object.

Chou first proposed the project after he noticed the possible deficiency of lighting in the Hong-Gah Museum. Chou addressed the formation and the termination of an exhibition from his own specific economic position, reflecting on both the source and destination of resources in a given environment. He considered the exhibition site at the Hong-Gah Museum to be a single object, and submitted a new proposal regarding the lighting equipment.

In order to attract sponsorship for the lighting equipment from a private enterprise, the artist turned the title of his art into an alternative form of business advertisement by using this company’s identification symbols in exhibition-related ads. On the site of the exhibition, the lighting pieces were the only objects in place and were evenly installed. After the exhibition ended, the ownership of the lighting had been transferred to the Museum as its property. At the same time, the exhibition site is depicted in a painting, becoming another piece of work and was displayed at a commercial site. This operation enabled the business of art to succeed as the Museum and the Gallery obtained what they needed.

In his work, Chou has perceived and effectively displayed various relations between an artist and an artist’s resources. The different phases of the project are thus linked not because of their default approach of manipulation, but because of the way the artist shapes his creative position in the resource chain.

About the Artist

Chou,Yu-Cheng was born in Taipei in 1976 and currently lives and works in Taipei. He received his post-graduate degree from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Currently he produces graphic design and videos for a living. His artworks comment on the existing status quo through design tricks, and he highlights discrepancies by manipulating and transforming objects or procedures, such as when he designed contemporary style meeting tables to replace the commonplace office furniture that Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art were using.

By modifying and shifting the differences of time or locations, Chou creates the dialectical interplay between the source and the result of his creations.