LEE Yung-Chih: Bye-bye Taiwan New Cinema？ Film / Photography / Installation

Bye-bye Taiwan New Cinema？ Film / Photography / Installation

Neo n’ Old series
Projection Installation,Multi-channel Video Installation, Transparent Glass Stickers, Acrylic Light Box

Neo n’ Old is a series of works begun in 2021 by artist Yung-Chih Lee. Using both video projection and transparent glass stickers as medium, these works replicate and recreate the patterns and textures of iconic neon advertising boards, with references gathered from a variety of historical sources. By copying these once ubiquitous images, the artist brings into the present moment an atmosphere of an old industrial era that has now faded into the past. At the same time, this act reproduces the craze for neon signage that was so popular in Asia during the 1980s.

Neo n’ Old reproduced famous images of well-known brands such as Morinaga, Fujifilm and Seiko, as well as many others. With transparent glass stickers and video projections placed high above the exhibition space, visitors were able to look up and find themselves drawn into the unique atmosphere created by these unique signs of their times. Neo n’ Old_National, a new work in the series, is based on a red neon advertising board once located outside Taipei Main Station and Zhonghua Shopping Yard. The work itself consists of a lightbox installation and a large-scale motion video projection, one that creates a movie reel-like effect.

By collecting and collaging these now defunct neon signs, the artist not only manages to convey his personal memories and experiences, but also presents to the audience an urban landscape of a specific era, representing and forming an interrogation between the real and the virtual, the past and the contemporary.