Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture

“Fine control over lines of sight” and “contextualization of objects or installations” are two important key components in Joyce Ho’s art. Therefore, rather than focusing on whether her artworks could convey clear significant references (especially with the numbers, English words or phrases that are incorporated in her artworks), she places more emphasis on what’s peculiar, ambiguous, erotic, or poetic and creates intense images or scenes to construct a central circuit for seeing. 

────Excerpt from “Intimate Ways of Seeing Under Controlled Lines of Sight: On Joyce Ho’s Object Narrative” by Wang Sheng-Hung (The full essay is available on the ARTalks website)  

◌ Date│2023.03.06－2023.04.14

◌ Venue│1F Lobby of Taishin Holding

▍Artwork Introduction

Joyce Ho, Dream About Me, Fiberglass, pedestal, light box, acrylic, 2017, 48x48x165cm

Joyce Ho, Balancing Act V, Painted stainless steel, 2023, Dimensions variable (Photo credit: Lu Guo-Wei)

The artwork, Dream About Me, draws inspiration from a small gesture by the artist’s sibling, which involves her standing on a scale after she has taken a shower and is seen looking down to read the number: Depicted is a girl with a towel wrapped around her head, and her face is lit up by the gentle illumination from the scale. The mundane, everyday gesture is henceforth frozen in time, with modern people’s specific state of being also reflected, including the gesture of looking at a scale (a sign of concern for one’s appearance or health), looking at a cellular phone/tablet or other electronic devices (a need for obtaining real-time information), or other situations. Ho has intentionally chosen the format of a nude bust, which prompts classical associations, and she also applies a bottom-up cool light source, as she collects a sample of a gesture that reflects our contemporary lifestyle.  

Surrounding Dream About Me is the installation work, Balancing Act V. The tall artwork has sharp protruding points that make the work appear like a picket fence, but with a curved supporting structure installed at the bottom, the artwork would rock like a bassinet when it’s gently pushed. Connotations of restriction, limitation, and segregation are evoked due to associations connected to a hard, rigid fence, but the work also alludes to a bassinet, which is gentle, caring, comforting, and intimate. Contrast is expressed both functionally and spatially. Using everyday familiar objects, Ho has created a new and unknown space, and viewers are invited to conjure their own interpretations and dictate the distance they would like to keep, both physically and psychologically, when they interact with the artwork.

▍About the Artist

Born in 1983 in Taipei, Taiwan, Joyce Ho received her M.A. in studio arts from the University of Iowa. She is an interdisciplinary artist with an emphasis in painting, installation, and performance. With an illusion rich in light and shadow, the artist aims to integrate the deconstructed movements and fragmented slices of daily routines to convey intimate yet alienated tensions between people and reality. The artist's works simultaneously captivate and confront her viewers, rendering the quotidian action depicted in her work as a momentary ritual.