Yao Jui-Chung (姚瑞中)

Yao Jui-Chung was born in 1969. Lives and works in Taipei. He graduated from The National Institute of The Arts (Taipei National University of the Arts). His works has been widely exhibited in numerous international exhibitions. including Venice Biennale, Yokohama Triennale, APT6 Triennale, Shanghai Biennale, Beijing Photo Biennale, Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Venice Architecture Biennale, Media City Seoul Biennale, Asia Triennial Manchester, Asia Biennale, Sydney Biennale & Taipei Biennale. Yao is the winner of The Multitude Art Prize in 2013 and 2014 Asia pacific Art Prize. Yao specializes in photography, installation and painting. The themes of his works are varied, but most importantly they all examine the absurdity of the human condition. Yao has assembled all the black-and-white photos of ruins he took in the past 30 years, grouped under the themes of industry, religious idols, architecture, and military bases. They reveal the enormous ideological black hole in Taiwan hidden behind the trends of globalization and Taiwan’s specific historical background as a continuation of the main theme of his work: the absurdity of the historical destiny of humanity. Since 2010, Yao grouped his students into a team of photography workshop called “"Lost Society Document” "(LSD). He encouraged them to photograph and survey in their hometowns. Through the way of field surveys, they have attempt to draw the outline of “mosquito houses” which have been widely criticized, published five books named “Mirage: Disused Public Property in Taiwan” and practice looked into the possibility of observing the society by through the meaning of Art. He has also published several books. His works have been collected by lots of public museum and many other private collectors. Also a Part Time Teacher at the National Taiwan Normal University Department of Fine Arts

 1969年生於台灣台北，1994年國立台北藝術大學美術系畢業，曾受邀參展威尼斯、橫濱、亞太、上海、亞洲、深圳、首爾、曼徹斯特、雪梨、台北、雅加達、波蘭…等地藝術雙/三年展，台北攝影新人獎、香港「集群藝術獎」、新加坡「亞太藝術獎公眾獎」及台灣「台新獎」得主。曾擔任「天打那實驗體」團長、楊德昌電影「獨立時代」美術指導、1997年與友人創辦「非常廟」。作品涉獵廣泛，主要探討人類某種荒謬處境，早期作品以幽默手法對「正統性」進行顛覆，也透過攝影裝置手法，呈現台灣特有的一種虛假、疏離的「冷現實」，並整理過去在台灣各處踏查拍攝的廢墟照片，呈現台灣全球化潮流與特殊歷史背後所隱藏著的龐大意識形態黑洞，延續「人類歷史之命運具有某種無可救藥的荒謬性！」創作主軸。自2010年帶領「失落社會檔案室」返鄉進行反思閒置空間現象的《海市蜃樓》拍攝計劃，以「微型文化行動」概念提引起社會高度關注，並推動「攝影訪談輯」系列出版，近期以「永劫輪迴」概念完成《巨神連線》系列，探討台灣民間宗教信仰透過巨大神像所展現的「欲力奇觀」，之後拍攝宮廟內的人造地獄《地獄空》，試圖捕捉台灣特有的「新變形主義」，呈現「業力具體化」。2020年創建虛構的「犬儒共和國」，以寄生宿主中華民國為概念，探討國族新認同與新冷戰趨勢。2020年受邀擔任「禽獸不如-台灣雙年展」策展人。目前為國立臺灣師範大學美術系兼任副教授、非常廟藝文空間暨幻影堂負責人。

姚瑞中2022年德國慕尼黑駐村作品「秘密客」明細

YAO Jui-chung New Works

因受德國藝術家Lars Koepsel創辦的「藝術公寓」（AOA）之邀，在疫情與烏俄戰爭期間前往慕尼黑藝術村創作三個月，德國南部大城慕尼黑自古以來即為修道士之都，駐村地點位居市區南邊史坦伯格（Starnberger See）湖旁的飛它方（Feldafing），環境清幽怡人，聽說泰王也居住附近豪宅，住在悠久古蹟內每天遙望阿爾卑斯山喝著印度紅茶，每天幾乎騎著腳踏車採買或偶爾在湖中飄浮游泳，有時進城參觀各式美術館頗受衝擊，晚上怪夢頗多，雜音、搖床、雷暴、熱浪一陣一陣，不禁思緒飛噴、靈感泉湧，突發奇想展開一系列結合山海經、西方神話、浮世繪與歷史圖騰的幽默畫作，以當地所購手工圓形棉紙與德國著名Faber-Castell彩筆，貼上廟宇金箔入畫，試圖創作中西合璧、跨越古今、幽默嘲諷、詭異造型、配色活潑…之畫風，延續十五年前在蘇格蘭高地Glenfiddich威士忌酒廠駐村展開的繪畫創作，進一步聚焦在神話、傳說、仙人、妖魔、鬼怪、怪咖…等超越經驗界之奇想世界，並結合在此生活特殊體驗入畫，因慕尼黑München英文發音頗似中文「秘密客」（Mysticism）頗與此系列呼應，遂以此標題作為系列名稱，呼應今年太陽系超怪的六星連珠與一連串天災戰禍、群魔亂舞，在此五濁惡世之際，盼世人皆除一切心魔、護一切善法、生一切種智矣。

In every lifetime, there are good times. For me, events that mark me indelibly linger in my memory. In recollections of the past, that which creates nostalgia is not the fleeting moments of glory, but the impermanence of a faint sadness. 
As a child, I often sat on my father’s lap and watched as peonies, dragons in flight, and roaring tigers emerged from the tip of his brush; vivid blossoms, lifelike dragons riding on clouds and mist, and ferocious tigers whose roars seem capable of reaching the edge of the horizon. I’d doodle and scribble, naïve and innocent, surrounded by brushes, ink, and inkstone. The redolence of ink and the musk of books filled the room back then, and linger in the air still, conjuring those memories time and again. 
I was withdrawn as a child, and was academically unaccomplished. In primary school, only art class seemed to provide an outlet. My grades in secondary school were discouraging, and art class offered relief from such disappointment. Studying art at vocational high school was a window that opened into a new world for me. I would happily stay up all night to finish a project. Under the rigors of a Western-style education, the brush and ink paintings I grew up with became the relics of a bygone past. My father’s solitary figure at his solo exhibitions seemed proof that those traditions were in decline. My father never lived to see the solo shows of his youngest child, as he had passed away in New York when I was retaking my university entrance exams. All he left behind for me were his ink brushes. These fine brushes remain standing in their holder. To this day, I have not had the courage to paint with them; not because the brushes are old, but because the traditions hidden deep within them are immense, and I have neither the ability to carry them nor to put them down. 
I grieved my father’s death as I sat for my university exams. The results enabled me to attend art school, but I gave up painting after my first solo exhibition. I focused all of my efforts instead on the study of Western art theory, on publishing underground magazines, and on dabbling in interdisciplinary projects. I even founded a hiking club. Classmates then, who now work independently as artists, were with me as we scaled famed mountains and visited lustrous lakes. We beheld vibrant verdant peaks in the spring and summer, marveled at the mists and clouds of the autumn and winter, and saw rivers of jade surrounded by juniper. Nature, ever-changing, filled us with unspeakable awe. Our eyes were opened as we saturated ourselves in the mountains and streams of Taiwan. Those were the days; the good times. Out in the real world among the masses, and trying to make ends meet by creating art, I often returned to the mountains, hoping to find my muse whenever I was overwhelmed by the prospects of an uncertain future. I contemplated my path while gazing at waves crashing against cliffs, or as I strolled in places long forgotten, among hidden ruins of buildings between the city and countryside. I envisioned a simpler life like the ancient hermits, living freely and off the grid. To the grand mountains and immense oceans, fame and power are nothing more than a floating cloud on a cliff’s edge, or a momentary splash of the receding tide. Fame and power, as empty and impermanent as any illusion, are mere ruins and indifferent to our tributes and lamentations. 
It was during a residency in the Scottish Highlands a few years ago, that I found myself in an amazing place I have yearned for – surrounded by hills and fields covered in stalks of wheat for as far as the eye can see. The view and surroundings brought forth a tidal wave of memories. I painted day and night, unable to stop, as though I needed to retrieve every moment of good times that had been lost. Father’s brushes were a world away, so I picked up the fine-tipped ink pens I had at hand, and poured my emotions into this untraditional calligraphy. Perhaps the possibilities of ink and brush painting were hidden beneath traditional dogma, and by putting aside the limitations of brush, ink, paper, and printing, traditional paintings suddenly transformed into new ideas that opened up new pathways. In retrospect, this was not a coincidence, but a result of something that has been gradually cast by experience. 
Now in my forties, married and with children, the simple daily routines of life seem to have been born of the dust of this city. There are the occasional reunions with the mountains, of gazing at cliffs in the distance, but those mountain paths of the past can only be retraced with the overlapping threads of pen marks, in an attempt to stir up the long-settled layers of snow to conjure buried memories. 
I once believed that mountains were not what they seemed. Now, I know the mountains that appear in my mind’s eye are truly what they are, but what the mind perceives has been quietly transformed. The mountains and waters have no intentions and therefore need not be named. A change of vantage point does not have bearing on the ever-changing world.