Conceptual art is good only when the  idea is good.

                                                                       — Conceptual Artist Sol LeWitt, 1967

Cho Hui-Chin, a 25-year-old artist from a new generation, finished her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the University College London Slade School of Fine Art with first-class honours on the Dean's List in 2018. Following her graduation, she had year-long residencies at several Japanese art institutions, including 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo, Arts Itoya in Kyushu, Studio Kura in Fukuoka and more. Since September this year, she has been attending Royal College of Art, the top art university of England, to obtain her Master of Art degree in Painting. Cho distinguished herself by winning an array of honours and awards, as exemplified by the Ljubljana Art Prize in 2019 and The US Hopper Prize Finalist and MANIFEST International Painting Annual Finalist in 2018. Her works are well recognized by international art institutions, heralding bright prospects for her artistic career.

Unique iconography of babies

Having grown up in the multicultural environment of Taiwan, Cho was deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture and aesthetics as well as Japanese anime and manga, which helped create an enticing space for imagination in her artworks. The iconography of babies with unique appearances or shapes is ubiquitous in her whimsical world ― a singular face, a plump and lovely composure, slender limbs, or quirky organs ― a miscellany of incongruous figures embodies her sophisticated craftsmanship and extraordinary imagination in the depiction of the human body. Such a grotesque iconography of babies is a key feature to Cho’s distinctive artistic style. From the seemingly abstract and fictional images, elements of Eastern religions can also be occasionally extracted. Cho experimented with couplet-type scroll painting as a carrier for her boundless imagination, integrating Western media into the aesthetics of Eastern art.

Painting and sculpture!?

With an amalgam of materials, especially vintage or antique materials, Cho utilizes a practice primarily consisting of painting and sculpture to express her ideas. In her eyes, there is little difference between painting and sculpture, and both of them are a way of conveying her artistic concepts. As such, the foremost thing is the concept itself to be conveyed. This combined way of creation is dubbed as a “collage” in art history. Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning (1912) is the earliest breakthrough creation, in which a daily item is pasted onto the painting, that ushered in an era in which artworks became composed from various media. The pioneering German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters also composed admirable compositions of various pieces of garbage that symbolize the broken world in the wake of World War I. Artists attempt to trace the original purpose of the media from different sources and reincarnate them to create great artworks that prompt retrospection in and resonation with viewers. This is also what Cho constantly strives for.

Material symbolism and surreal imaginations

Cho holds a deep fascination with the hidden symbolic meanings behind media, and investigates the nature of materials by skillfully implanting creature by-product, such as fur, leather, antiques and luxuries, into her works. These creatures were all life forms before they were converted into commodities driven by human material desires. Therefore, artists endow these by-products with the figurative expression of human desires, by which they explore the subtleties between life and death. This also reveals Cho’s delicate and inclusive observation on the status quo of modern society, as well as her efforts to reflect the conflict in today's society through art: the inevitable relationship between obsessions and humanity.

Embedded in the dazzling pastels and cute iconography of babies in Cho’s surreal fictional world are in fact grotesque figures and ambiguous dark color lumps, suggesting the chaotic state of the world underneath this layer of sugar coating. All these elements can be analyzed, deconstructed and critiqued. The unique baby figures and multiple media elements constantly emerging from her artworks reveal her unremitting efforts to spark exploration into humanity and desires of the real world through art. Meanwhile, reflection by viewers on the materials is also considered part of her works, a process of comprehensively understanding the value / definition of materiality.

A Night of Artistic Tipsiness & An Artistic Act of Creative Destruction

 Soka Art Taipei will be hosting Cho Hui-Chin Solo Exhibition for 6 weeks starting from October 19 (Saturday) to November 30, 2019 (Saturday). Since the opening week of the exhibition coincides with the period of the Art Taipei 2019 exhibition, we will be specially holding the event, “A Night to Preview Cho Hui-Chin at X Gallery” at 7 pm, October 16 (Wednesday) along with Cho Hui-Chin herself. At the venue, guests may enjoy delicious selections of sushi and sake, while listening to a live electronic music show.  You are welcome to join us in a free-spirited evening of artistic tipsiness.

Additionally, we sincerely invite you to attend the opening art forum at 11:00 am on October 19 (Saturday), where an in-depth dialogue will be conducted between Ms. Cho Hui-Chin and Dr. Weng Chih-Hung, a contemporary music composer with City, University of London. At 3 pm on the same day, an unprecedented artistic performance of creative destruction will also kick off.  Curious as to what Cho will do then? Then, come join us on October 19 and experience the charm of her on-site creation.