LEE YUNG-CHIH (a.k.a. Big Uji) b. 1979 in Taipei County, Taiwan.Currently works and lives in Taipei City. Lee graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts MFA Program in New Media Arts.
Grown up in Huacheng Road, a place filled with factory noises and street litter. Determined to be a computer engineer when he was young, but unexpectedly found himself go on the road as a graphic/web/multi-media designer, more 'mixed' than skilled. Also, he took up his interests as an amateur short film director, a photographer, and a writer, enjoying his hybrid identity. He turned into an artist after entering into the art school, and won several awards such as Kaohsiung Awards(Observers Special Award)and New Taipei City Award(Merit Award).
This exhibition explores the enduring presence of historical memories in our contemporary lives. Two main aspects at the core of this discussion involve the textualization of histories and the materialization of memories. Much like our complex, chaotic contemporary lives, the works showcased in this exhibition exude a sense of anachronism. They imply that not only are we the products of history,
2023 Baking Enamel Iron Plate, Metal Support, Misting System
W250XD150XH230cm
Sunset of Lak-Tshat reinvigorates the contemporary “sunset” imagery that has long been regarded as a mere clichéd symbol, giving it a fresh materialization, while it also recalls the retro-futurism characteristic of the 2010s internet subculture, Vaporwave. In this installation, the intentional employment of a misting machine accelerates the decay of the smooth, lacquered surface of the iron billboard. As time elapses, the varnish breaks down, and the “picture” ends up being more and more like an “object.” The wordplay “lak-tshat” in Taiwanese signifies the deterioration of the varnish on the surface, while also suggesting errors or imprecision.
Expanding upon his previous exploration of fictive historicity, Lee Yung-Chih began experimenting with metal corrosion in 2022 as he delved into the relationship between material decay and perceived meanings. The misty and moist Sunset of Lak-Tshat appears particularly ambiguous and bewildering. It refers to a sense of loss for fleeting moments, meanwhile conveying an artificially constructed historicity. Nowadays, we are distant from the profound melancholy expressed in Tang-dynasty poet Li ShangYin’s imagist line, “The sunset is magnificent / But dusk is near.” Contemporary media culture converts everything into rapid consumption of commodified sentiments. Sorrow is transformed into a genrefied experience, as if it were a playlist of emotions for us to play at any time in infinite loops.
*Thanks for Supporting Video Clip by Dong Haw Wang
2023 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.
On the street, paint peeling from rusting metal has patterns on its back similar to those of the lingzhi mushroom, and the crystalized rust conforms to the contours of time, documenting almost stratigraphic records of different periods. Before such inferior materials, so commonly seen in our daily lives, are disposed of as useless waste and incinerated into ash, they also serve as an everyday spectacle, marking a sort of micro history. From this history, witnessed by the peeled paint and rediscovered on the street.
The Lak Tshat Greenhouse: “Lak tshat” is the Taiwanese term for “peeling paint”. It is designed to accelerate the production and “incubate” mottled marks on painted metal products in a laboratory setting. In addition to artificial “cultivation”, it aims to cogitate upon the elimination and continuation as well as the existence and demise of substance in comparison with the decay of “natural materials”.
The phenomenon of “Lak Tshat” (or literally “peeling paint” in Taiwanese) that occurs naturally is examined from a materials science perspective, adapting the method of salt spray test used in industrial weatherproof testing. A greenhouse is constructed using gardening tools and supplies, where “Rust Lingzhi” (Lingzhi, Ganoderma lucidum, also known as reishi, is a polypore fungus) is artificially cultivated. How the patterns on exhausted materials can be “bestowed” with meaning is explored, reflecting on the kind of hesitation that one may have in instances such as tossing away a protective phone case after it has been used for a long time. While testing the composite materials on manufactured protective products, the formation of vivid patterns of rust is also accelerated at the same time. The contradiction and paradox observed between the two reflect the shifting sentiments that sway between compromise and giving up when confronted with memories connected to imprints and marks.
Creative＆Scientific Collaborator - SONG Chia Yun
靜態攝影：顏楷倫
Projection Installation,Multi-channel Video Installation, Transparent Glass Stickers
Artist Lee Yung-Chih has long been interested in Asian urban living spaces amid industrial landscapes. Lee’s past works convert billboards, advertisements, and signs as creative components through approaches including ridicule, appropriation, and material transformation.
Lee’s Neo n’ Old series “copies” out-of-fashion neon billboards. By using mediums such as videos and transparent output images, Lee attempts to imitate and reconstruct the neon billboards that were seen across Asia in the 1980s. Neo n’ Old mourns past technologies and and illustrates “Futurism Out-of-date” For the artist, the work is not only the gathering and collaging of historical images but also references personal memories and experiences, a paradoxical redisplay of fiction intertwined with reality.
