Chou obtained permission to use the Hsinchu Zoo and the Shoushan Zoo in Kaohsiung as the sets for his photography project, and deliberately chose the twilight hour to shoot his works. In his opinion, the moment when light and colors blur and when day transitions into night is the perfect time point for delineating the overlap between the overt and covert tendencies in the human psyche.
As well as creating this so-called “directed photography” that is grand and theatrical in style and serves as a form of social discourse, Chou also made close-up, sympathetic portraits of individual characters on his sets. These secular characters were styled in fashionable clothing and looks from the 1970s, revealing the artist’s nostalgic feelings for a certain belle époque in the past. The representation of their clear visages and postures as ordinary people, on the other hand, contrasts with the inescapable and gradually numbing human condition in the contemporary social and cultural environment they lived in.
Dates: June 27–August 2, 2015
Venue: Elsa Art Gallery
8F, No. 33, Dexing West Road, Shilin District, Taipei City
Tel: 02-8866-1213
Chou Ching-hui
Biography
- Born 1965
- Graduated from Shih Hsin School of Journalism
- Developed interest in photography in 1988
- After completing military service, worked as a photojournalist for such local media as Capitol Morning News,
The Journalist magazine, and China Times Weekly.
- Established Ushow Visual Design Company in 2004. Currently visual director.
Solo exhibitions
1995 Frozen in Time—Chronicle of a Leper Colony. Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
1997 Frozen in Time—Chronicle of a Leper Colony. National Tsing-Hua University Arts Center, Hsinchu.
2002 Vanishing Breed—Workers Chronicle. Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Vanishing Breed—Workers Chronicle. 2nd Pingyao International Photography Festival, Pingyao, Shanxi, China.
2004 Vanishing Breed—Workers Chronicle. Quanta Building, Taipei.
Vanishing Breed—Workers Chronicle. Immersing in Art, Quanta Campus Tour Exhibition, Taipei.
2009 Wild Aspirations—The Yellow Sheep River Project. Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
2010 Wild Aspirations—The Yellow Sheep River Project. Istituto degli Innocenti, Florence, Italy.
2015 Animal Farm—Ching-hui Chou Solo Exhibition. Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei.
Animal Farm—Ching-hui Chou Solo Exhibition. Elsa Art Gallery, Taipei.
Inkjet Print 360 x 274.3 cm 2014
Inkjet Print 194.25 x 148 cm 2014
Inkjet Print 360 x 274.3 cm 2014