Miss Nice-Looking

Date: 2010
Length: 06:00 min.
Format:  16:9, 5 Channel Installation
Specification: Colour, Sound

Chi-Yu Liao presents the viewer with five ordinary live situations in which she is the protagonist. She attempts to play table tennis and jump rope with two of her friends. With another friend she pretends to have a meal, feeding him ice cream while he takes a sausage out of a microwave. In yet another situation, the artist portrays the solitary activities of reading a book or blowing up a balloon while other actors intrude in on the act. Although the scenarios seem believable, the viewer very quickly senses their artificiality. The actors' gestures are too awkward and their poses seem to be even more out of place. A closer look reveals the source of the tension: the actors are blindfolded. They wear plastic masks with huge anime-like eyes painted on them. Suddenly, pictures of daily life become powerful metaphors for constantly failing relationships. They demonstrate people's profound inability to see others and interact with them in a meaningful way. Every activity initiated by the actors halts at its very inception. Yet the actors smile nonchalantly and aloof, in spite of their incessant communicative fiascos. The artist emphasizes that we often live in a virtual reality of imagined relationships that we construct in our heads, lacking the courage to transgress the position of a blinded subject.

OC

Interview:

► 1. Your video has been chosen among over 1700 festival entries to participate in Videonale 13. How central is the video medium to your overall artistic production? Is it complimentary to other media you use or do you work exclusively with video?

I majored in painting in college. My first try at creating motion images came about when I finished a short film of stop motion animation with some hand-drawn pictures. I became very passionate about motion images ever since. Yet, it would be very time-consuming for one to finish an animation production independently. So I started using video camera making films. In that, I found, I could express my ideas very well about the way an artistic creation was supposed to be. A majority of my films was about myself. One of my creative styles then came along with merging my personal performance into the film making.

My video works create multiple viewpoints to watch: while my camera is in action, I use the camera to watch and at the same time the camera is looking at me; I can also see me as an object in the pictures. This is a complicated viewing process. The films have many interesting things going on and stimulate a lot of thinking.

Anyhow, I do not work exclusively with video. I am open to any possible forms of artistic production.

► 2. Is there a particular theme, concept or problem your art addresses the most?

My works focus on interpersonal relationships and also my own experiences about my body. Stories usually start from fragments of real life. With the help of imagination, detailed situations and narrations are created to express feelings and emotions close to real life.

Most of the time, the sources of my art are too trivial to be articulated. I pay a great deal of attention to many fleeting moments of daily life. I always make effort to feel with heart and to observe the others, plus, to catch those ineffable feelings passing back and forth between people.

► 3. What artists do you relate to or find significant for your own art-making?

My works come directly from my personal experiences, including my origin, family and social background, the people I know, and things around me. Some may try to explain my published works using theories of sociology or anthropology, such as the gender or the gaze theories. However, my works are actually filled with sentiments, telling about spirits, feelings, desires, and the elaborations on one’s body experiences.

► 4. Do you think the video medium can address social or political issues better than other art media?

I do not think video, as an art medium, can always outperform other media regarding social or political issues. One may find all kinds of great media available out there. But, personally, I like using video best because it makes it possible to enclose various emotions on different layers in one piece of work.

When making motion images, the artistic production is floating and time oriented. It leads the audience to one dimension open to imagination, specifying both time and place. This would make it possible for the audience to think or feel from more than one point. A video has a better chance to tell stories from different directions.

► 5. Art can be seen as a mirror that registers and reflects life or as a tool that transforms it. Which of the two positions is close to your own art-making philosophy?

I am very sensitive to details of life. I always feel that art is very close to real life.

I have never used my works as a tool to promote or to explain certain thinking. For me, the process of art-production is not about explanations, but about instincts and imaginations. My works are the fruit of unrestricted perceptions and thinking.

► 6. How do you understand success in an art-making career?

A successful artist knows well what he/she wants and likes. He/she concentrates in art-making, is a keen observer, and is super creative.

► 7. What is the most difficult and the most rewarding thing about making art / being an artist?

Art-making requires space and money, and is time-consuming. It is quite difficult to balance.

► 8. What are your upcoming projects?

I have some interesting projects in progress. Recently, I have tried to make subtler image presentation. Narration and set-up may become more complicated as well. In the meantime, I keep my thinking cap on about all kinds of possibilities of body and performance.

► 9. What do you do when you don't make art?

Well, art-making is part of my life. I live and do art at the same time.