Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

Chin-Chih Yang is an America-based artist and has been travelling back and forth between his hometown, Taiwan, and New York. Kill Me or Change! is his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. Yang uses recycled disposables, such as aluminum cans, snack packaging, electric wires, electronic materials, etc., to create interactive installations with unique texture and meanings. Moreover, he often conducts provocative yet intriguing performances to intervene in the bustling urban space, and in a guerilla manner, voices his protests against modern consumerism and the damages it has caused, an approach that has earned him attention and positive feedback from the international art scene. From his own unique life, he realizes that art should exist in the general public’s life. Therefore, he has constantly explored artistic approaches that allow him to interact with the public. In each of his interactive performances, he employs bizarre physicality to convey humor and irony, wittily sidestepping preconceptions that might hinder people’s understanding and creating a path paved by his individual thinking that allows him to address contemporary cultural phenomena and respond to the society. The exhibition title, Kill Me or Change!, originates from one of Yang’s performances, which shares an identical title. In the performance, he stuffs thirty thousand multicolored aluminum cans into a giant net that is suspended high in the air. When the cans are released from the net, the avalanche will bury the artist underneath into a mountain of garbage. This impactful live performance guides audiences to re-examine the modern consumer culture and think about how people can reduce wasting resources in their daily life. “Environmental protection” has always been a core issue that Yang cares about. His inspiration actually came from a job he had twenty years ago, in which he had a chance to learn about “recycle and reproduction procedures,” and discovered that pollution still took place during the process. It raised questions in his mind. Afterwards, he has been substituting financial capital with his own physical labor; regardless of risks to his own body and sustained by his enthusiasm, he adopts an approach that resembles self-punishment and hopes to show his audience that careless waste of resources is depleting the Earth and collapsing the ecosystem. Nine installations and videos are on view at the MOCA Studio and Plaza this time, and five performances are scheduled during the length of the exhibition. During his military service in Taiwan, Yang suffered from a stroke in his head due to over-exhaustion. Despite multiple surgeries, the changes on his face remained the same. However, his art, which could be clearly identified, is concrete actions for the world from an adamant soul refined by sufferings in life. Yang has always believed in the fact that when individual actions gradually converge and become a force, influences and changes will follow. His perspective is indeed as idealistic as it is inspiring!