Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

Comments on the Finalist 

Examining the “displacement” of individuals in contemporary society, YEH Wei-Li challenges the idea of place defined by collective consciousness or power. This prompts reflections and inquiries about personal memories while rejecting a simplistic view of place and reassessing implicit factors such as time, people, events, and objects that shape a place. YEH's solo exhibition embodies this reflective perspective. Furthermore, his re-engagement with and revitalization of abandoned spaces in his creative work evokes a spiritual dimension in which the place serves as a quintessential physical mediator, and the performers become drifting people, events, and objects free from temporal boundaries. The creator, as the orchestrator of this spatial-temporal performance, aims to forge new interpretations of place through the author, text, and readers. (Commentator: ROAN Ching-Yueh)

Artwork Introduction

Themed around “Beitou Palimpsest,” the exhibition is conceptualized as a process of textual rewrites. Through photography, installations, and the rewriting and reinterpretation of HAO Yu-Hsiang’s descriptions of Beitou, the work gradually evolves from the original texts, creating a reimagined and reconstructed “palimpsest.” By reading, conducting field surveys, and reinscribing local narratives, this exhibition seeks to investigate the complex, layered nature of local memory, attempting to guide the audience in expanding their understanding and imagination of “place” through the process of “rewriting/reinscribing.”

About the Artist

YEH Wei-Li, born in Taipei in 1971, moved to the United States at the age of eleven. In 1994, he graduated from the University of South Florida in Tampa with a BFA in Photography, and then earned an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. He returned to Taiwan in 2002 and has launched various long-term projects, including Treasure Hill Tea + Photo Project, Antiquity-Like Rubbish Research & Development Syndicate, and a project that reassesses the work of the late artist YEH Shih-Chiang (1926–2012). His photographic and text-based creations continue to investigate individual agency within collective practice while addressing the sociopolitical dynamics between individuals and the cities they inhabit. In recent years, guided by both serendipitous circumstances and his ongoing research into the legacy of YEH Shih-Chiang, Yeh, along with his wife and child, has settled on Taiwan’s northern coast, where he gradually deepens his exploration of the local environment and culture.

Production Team

Advisor | Ministry of Culture

Organizers | Chew’s Culture Foundation, Hong-Gah Museum

Director | Zoe Yeh

Exhibition Coordinator | Daisy Li

Exhibition Administration | Fan Ho-Ching

Public Relations | Jessica Chien

Workshop Instructors | Hsu Tsun-Hsu, Lee Yi-Shuan, Tsao Yung-Ching, Kuo Huei-Zhong

Graphic Design | Lo Shih-Tung

Lighting Design | Lee I-Ting

Technical Installation | Chen Ku-Ming, Yan Gang

Translation | Danson Wong

Acknowledgements | Hao Yu-Hsiang, Wu Yu-Hsin, Hsu Tsun-Hsu, Chen Wan-Jen, Jacob Forman, Wang Shao-Gang, Frank Delaigue, Syko Song, Chiou Jr-Ying, Nishihara Hiroki, Nishihara An, Liu Hojang, Chung Soon-Long, Shen Chao-Liang, Tseng Shao-Chien, Louis Lo, Shih Pei-Chun, NTU Photography Club, Taipei Municipal Fuxing High School, the Place x there