Burrow

Contemporary Asian Photography is an exhibition series that takes a close look at contemporary culture and art practice from Asian artists’ perspectives. The exhibitions concentrate on specific pieces of history and life experiences, but also attempt to construct or discover relationships between historical contexts from varied perspectives. Specifically, they make observations either from different geographical locations synchronously, or from the same location at different times. The personal experiences and collective consciousness are linked with multiple historical trajectories charted by the vicissitudinal political and social forces. In Crisis of Now Pt. I three Taiwanese artists—YAO Jui-Chung, YANG Che-Yi and Yunyi LIU—present their contemporary photography through multicultural observations.

Each of the show projects demonstrates the persistent authority that photographers have always relied on—that a camera allows you to step into situations and take a look and also to step back, reflect and comment. The title of the exhibition is a direct reference to the historical background, the turbulent political and social landscape of Asia in this timeframe. In recent years, Asia has not only arisen as an urgent geopolitical issue thanks to the wrestling among these historical driving forces, but has also become the gasoline and electricity by which the engine of capitalist market is powered for the process of neoliberal globalization. It has also served as a wrestling ring for different forces in international politics, which is by no means a result of historical contingency but a product in response to times of crisis.

The big formatted publication, published in association with the exhibition „Crisis Of Now - Contemporary Asian Photography Part 1“ gives enough space for full bleed photography but also leaves the possibility to give archival photography room for a more detailed layout with smaller imagery. The publication includes a series of texts by LU Pei-Yi, Li-Hsin KUO and Bo-Yi SHEN combined with photos by YAO Jui-Chung, YANG Che-Yi and Yunyi LIU and was realized in close collaboration with the curator Chun-chi WANG. Different parts of the identity including the publication cover were printed at the silk screen press while the book’s interior was printed on offset print.