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Artist News | Yahon Chang: Ode to Life

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Artist News | Yahon Chang: Ode to Life 视频资讯 INKstudio墨斋崇真艺客

Yahon Chang, Ode to Life (painting performance), March 17, 2022, Center for Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts.

*To watch a video of the live performance on YouTube, please click “Read more” at the end of the article.

In his paintings the Taiwanese artist Yahon Chang brings (b. 1948) together traditional Chinese ink-wash painting and Western forms of artistic expression to produce a synthesis of East and West. Typically standing on large sheets of linen cloth or xuan paper and wielding a brush almost as long as he is tall, Chang creates works imbued with performative energy and characterized by large, sweeping brushstrokes. Drawing on Chinese literati and Zen (Chan) Buddhist traditions, the artist understands painting as an activity that connects body and mind. His entire body functions as an axis for these expressive paintings and is influenced by his training in calligraphy.

Through highly regarded projects at Performa 19 in New York (2019), Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (2019), Outset’s artist-in-residence in London (2019), Manifesta 12 in Palermo (2018), Museum of Contemporary Art (MACRO) in Rome (2016) and the official collateral program of 56th Venice Biennale (2015), Yahon Chang (b. 1948) has also become widely recognized as an international performance artist outside of Taiwan.

To explore this distinctive aspect of his artistic practice, INKstudio with Yahon Chang Studio organized a monumental “painting as performance,” Ode to Life, in the newly opened Center for Art and Technology at the Taipei National University of Arts on March 17th as part of Taipei Dangdai’s education and VIP programme.

In this hour-long performance, Yahon Chang reconfigured painting as both performance and writing and in doing so challenged the distinction between the performing and visual arts and between visual and linguistic signification. The artist wielded the brush in the concerto of violinist Edith Chen-Yin Lin and pianist Kevin Fan Yu as if dancing on a massive 20 x 10 meters linen canvas across the theatre space. Through live projection on screens, attendees of the event were able to obtain a bird’s-eye view of the performance while observing the artist’s movements closely.

Yahon Chang, Ode to Life (painting performance), March 17, 2022, Center for Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts. Live music performance by Chen-Yin Lin and Kevin Fan Yu.

Comment from Sir Antony Gormley, OBE:

“It is wonderful to think of all the dances of finger, hand, wrist, arm, torso, spine, hips, thighs, knees, calves, and every part of the feet that each of these brushes evokes—they are like the needle end of a cardiogram at different scales, capable of capturing the finest vibration of energy, the subtlest tremor of sense. Through them the body is both extended and grounded—capable of being both transmitter and receiver of all that being-in-the-world affords, both conscious and intuitive!”

Yahon Chang, Ode to Life (painting performance), March 17, 2022, Center for Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts.

INKstudio at Taipei Dangdai 2022

The painting performance is part of a larger program for the artist Yahon Chang during Taipei Dangdai 2022.

Yahon Chang: Ode to Life

A monumental painting performance

Tuesday, May 17th from 3:00-4:30 pm

Center for Art and Technology, Taipei National University of Arts

Yahon Chang: Painting as Performance

Book pre-launch panel as part of Taipei Dangdai’s Ideas Forum

Sunday, May 22nd from 1:30-2:30 pm

Panelists：

Yahon Chang, Taiwan-born artist

Britta Erickson, Ph.D., curator and art historian

Manu Park, D.E.A., former Director of the Nam June Paik Art Center in Korea

Moderated by J.J. Shih, Trustee of Contemporary Art Foundation, former Director of Guandu Museum of Art

About INKstudio

INKstudio is an art gallery based in Beijing and New York. Its mission is to present Chinese experimental ink as a distinctive contribution to contemporary transnational art-making in a closely-curated exhibition program supported by in-depth critical analysis, scholarly exchange, bilingual publishing, and multimedia production. INKstudio's program encompasses Postwar and contemporary artists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan including Bingyi, Chang Yahon, Chen Haiyan, Cheng Yen-ping, Dai Guangyu, He Yunchang, Hung Fai, Huang Chih-yang, Inoue Yu-ichi, Jennifer Wen Ma,Jeong Kwang-hee, Kim Jong-ku, Lee In, Li Jin, Li Huasheng, Lim Hyun-lak, Lim Ok-sang, Liu Dan, Peng Kang-long, Ethan Su Huang-Sheng, Tao Aimin, Wai Pong-yu, Wang Dongling, Wang Tiande, Wei Ligang, Xu Bing, Yang Jiechang and Zheng Chongbin and exhibits works of diverse media, including painting, calligraphy, sculpture, installation, performance, photography, and video. Since its inception in 2012, INKstudio has regularly appeared at art fairs such as the Armory Show (New York), Art Basel Hong Kong, and West Bund Art & Design (Shanghai) and placed works into major public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and M+, Hong Kong.