YAO JUI-CHUNG is the Taiwanese 2018 recipient of the Residency Exchange Taipei / Perth, hosted by Turner Galleries and the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts in Taipei. (Eugenio Viola, Senior Curator at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art is the other 2018 exchange recipient, who will travel to KdMoFA in Taipei in November undertaking research and meeting with artists and curators). Yao Jui-Chung is a leading contemporary artist who has also worked as a curator, critic, activist, and academic in Taiwan. He will show a range of new screen prints in our Entry Room, along with an impressive 5 metre pen and ink painting on paper. Whilst in Perth, he will also be participating in the PICA residency program, and providing public talks at various venues. (Please refer to the enclosed REXPTP press release). Yao Jui-Chung specializes in photography, installation and painting. The themes of his works are varied, but most importantly they examine the absurdity of the human condition. In recent years, he has combined the traditional style of “gold and green landscape” with the superstitions that permeate Taiwanese folklore, expressing a false and alienated “cold reality” that is specific to Taiwan. He appropriates masterpieces from Chinese art history and recreates them in his own work, transforming them into his personal history or real stories, in an attempt to transform grand narratives into the trivial affairs of his individual life. (A perfect example of this is the new screen prints on display in this exhibition that document the history of the pets in his life). Yao intends to usurp so called orthodoxy with his recreated landscapes. Also on display will be a new painting, titled Cliffs & Gully : Treasure Hill. Treasure Hill is a historically important location in Taiwan. The original settlement was illegal, but was later developed into an innovative environmentally sustainable community housing many families. It is now an artist village, with only 22 of the original families remaining. Yao Jui-Chung was born in 1969 in Taipei. He graduated from The National Institute of The Arts (Taipei National University of the Arts) with a degree in Art Theory. In 1997, he represented Taiwan at the Venice Biennale and since then has participated in numerous international Biennales and exhibitions, including the 2016 Sydney Biennale. He also works in the fields of theatre and film, has taught art history, written art criticism and books, and curated exhibitions. His artworks can be found in important art collections around the world.