Taiwan artist Yang Mao-lin pushes boundaries with thought-provoking works

2020/08/07

Artist Yang Mao-lin is shaking up the local art scene with bold works that challenge norms while adding a Taiwan twist.
 
 Known for breaking taboos and challenging authority, Yang uses his art to illustrate Taiwan’s cultural, historical and political developments. Nowhere is Yang’s willingness to push boundaries more evident than in his Made in Taiwan series, which comprises 392 pieces created from 1989 to 2015.
 
“Yang took a term known for being a country of origin label and subverted it as a cultural symbol highlighting Taiwan’s artistic identity,” said Liao Tsun-ling, chief of the Research Department at Taipei Fine Arts Museum. “Made in Taiwan explores the expressive potential of the country’s visual arts.”

Although much of Yang’s work features scenes from the country’s authoritarian, colonial and indigenous past, his favorite subject is something familiar to people around the world: pop culture. By the mid-1990s, he had begun painting famous characters such as King Kong, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Superman.
 
 By adopting such iconic imagery, Yang sought to eliminate some of the elitism of the art industry. “Art is how I upset the status quo,” the artist said.
 
“Comic books are maybe the most popular drawings in the world, but they’re often not considered ‘real’ art,” Liao said. “People forget pop culture helps shape national identity, making it equally worthy of attention.”

In 2002 Yang’s style evolved yet again as he sought new challenges. After working on canvas for 20 years, he started a master’s degree program in sculpture at Taipei National University of the Arts, experimenting with materials like bronze, steel and wood.
 
 Although he was working with a new form, Yang continued to select characters from pop culture as subjects, painstakingly recreating them in 3D. Some of his most well-known works from this time depict comic book heroes as Buddha statues, providing an incisive commentary on the nature of modern day idols.
 
 He has also begun incorporating fish as a recurring motif in recent works due to his childhood love of the animals. “Fish are a wonderful subject because they come in all shapes and sizes. They give me the freedom to create something different every time I work,” he said.

Over the years, Yang’s artworks have featured in exhibitions at home and abroad including in Australia, France, Italy, Japan and the U.S., as well as in collections at southern Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Fine Arts Museum and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in the central city of Taichung.
 
“My aspiration is to have works accepted into permanent collections,” Yang said. “I’m lucky to be able to make art for a living. I just hope I never have to retire!” he added.

Source: Taiwan Today (https://taiwantoday.tw/index.php)