Yeh Tzu-chi

Born (in 1961) and grew up in Taipei, Yeh Tzu-Chi now lives in Tainan, Taiwan. With a background of English literature, she had been an editor, an English lecturer and a freelance writer / translator before she turned to performance art in 2002. Since then she has joined international performance art festivals/events in different cities of Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Philippine, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Finland, Israel, Croatia, Canada, Mexico, United States, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, and Argentina. She founded ArTrend Performance Group in 2003 and has organized several local and international performance art events/festivals domestically. The core idea of her art may be to discover and shape art in daily life; while in art reshape and rethink about daily life. Her themes are broad such as: self-healing, woman experience, animal rights, various relationships (gender, human to human, human to animal, human to nature, human to society ...), politics and history of individual and nation, environment, and poetry, etc. Her form is open to any experiment, but basically, she uses minimalist ready-made objects to reduce harm to the environment and the earth. https://yehtzuchiart.wordpress.com performance art event ArTrend organized by Tzu-Chi http://artrendperfogrup.blogspot.com https://youtu.be/dxx3jp_kLZk Title: Sun Partydate: 2019/11/14venue : Balmaceda Arte Joven, Valparaiso, Chileproject: CuerpAs International Performance Art Festivalcurator: Alexander Del Re In the latter half of 2019s, Hangkongers on the street to protest Extradition Law wear masks to protect themselves from being recognized by the police and also from the poisonous tear gas. The far away Chileans do the same thing since October as they protest against the current government. And for me, I’ve worn mask quite often in recent years due to the serious air pollution in my own country. https://youtu.be/D4MUnp-p6UI Title: IN &amp; OUT REENACTdate: 2017/10/7venue : Treasure Hill Art Village, Taipei, Taiwancurator: Liping Ting She invites audience to join her one by one, and then leave one by one. https://youtu.be/_YqlBcdyurg Title: WOMAN WITHOUT FACEdate:2017/4/15 venue : feat Sabina Cienega Leyva and Ana Miriam Espino Garcia Norogachi, Chihuahua, Mexicoproject: Performancear o Morircurator: Gustavo Alvarez An improvisation she does with two Raramuri women who work in the kitchen of Alba’s house. https://youtu.be/7NgQHpQAS8Q le : 我們這樣過馬路 That’s How We Cross the Road date : 2014/7/10 venue : Tainan, Taiwan project : Mind &amp; Sea: ArTrend International Performance Art Festival camera : 吳青樺 Wu Ching-Hwa edit : Yeh Tzu-Chi https://youtu.be/SAlwcFGZXiw Title: Wind Sonatadate:2012/10/24 venue : Incheon Art Platform, Incheon, South KoreaShe hides in the big pile of dry leaves, waiting for the wind to take them away from her. It’s a performance of her and nature: wind, leaves, sunlight, and time. https://youtu.be/Vodz8gb2Dbk Title: Hands Update: 2012/3/13venue : China Academy of Arts, HangZhou, Chinaproject: In &amp; Out of Heaven Art Event curator: Cai Qing https://youtu.be/CbmRFTeCycM Title: FLASH PERFORMANCE date: 2012/3/12 venue : ShiWuDong, HangZhou, Chinaproject: In &amp; Out of Heaven Art Eventcurator: Cai Qing She collect audiences’ mobile numbers and text them where and when to do performance. They gather 3 times to do 3 individual performance. https://youtu.be/yTCVnF4_XPo Title: THE WORLD OUTSIDEdate: 2011/10/8 venue : Guan Jia Lin Art Base, Chong Qing, ChinaAn improvisational performance she did in Wang Rui’s studio. she piled up different wooden boxes and chairs, climbed to the top, and looked out from the window. https://youtu.be/TT-330g7uxo Title: SHADOWdate: 2009/6/1venue : Myanmar Art and Culture Center, Yangon, Myanmar project: Beyond Pressure International Performance Art Eventcurator: Moe Satt They draw their own shapes on the wall and throw eggs with red acrylic inside on them. https://youtu.be/A7Gjmrr9MxM Title: Dark date: 2008/11/8venue : Bangkok Art and Culture Center, Bangkok, Thailandproject: Asiatopia International Performance Art Festival curator: Chumpon Apisuk She blindfold herself and slowly lower herself from head to toe, chair to floor. https://youtu.be/lGSHLzGAQnE Title: SIGNdate: 2008 /9 /20venue : Tel Aviv, Israelproject: ZAZ International Performance Art Festival curator: Tamar Raban There was a black cloth about 5-6 meters long on the ground. A table with 2 chairs on one side. She started to write in English, sky and sea. Birds singing. It’s a cloth. It’s not a cloth. Tunnel. It’s tunnel, two cloth tunnels. Now she want to invite one of them to crawl through the tunnels, with her and without her. https://youtu.be/1N7pqf3tAZM?si=ULME1TykmwAwyNC6 title : 《結髮 HairTie6'35》 date : 2004/8/29 venue : Beijing, China project : OPEN Art Festival, Chen Jin camera : He Cheng-Yao 何成瑤 edit : Yeh Tzu-Chi https://youtu.be/MfuNkQqGoQc Title: SOMETHING ABOUT LOVEdate: 2004/9/3 venue : 798 Art Zone, Beijing, Chinaproject: Open Art Festival curator: Chen Jin She writes a poem about an unsuccessful relation. She lies down to have the ink print on her body several times during writing. Finished writing, She tears the paper and burn it. https://youtu.be/nlW3zQqRgPI Title: Traditional Chinesedate: 2003/09/07venue : Tainan National Univ. of Arts / Tainan / Taiwanproject: ArTrend Late Summer Event video： Chen Bo-Wen ............"I grew up in such a culture and was deeply constrained by such values, so it was extremely difficult for me to take off my clothes and perform a nude performance! But if art is about freedom, truth, equality, transcendence, and resistance to oppression, in order to pursue a better self and society, then we must courageously face our own cowardice, challenge ourselves, and recapture women's autonomy of our own body........... In addition, the traditional Chinese written on me seems to make this performance a political metaphor. In the overall Chinese society, only Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao (about 30 million people) use Traditional Chinese, and the mainland China (more than 1 billion people) uses Simplified Chinese. In comparison, Traditional Chinese is absolutely weak, just like Taiwan’s national strength when compared to the mainland China. Keeping traditional Chinese and Taiwan's lifeblood then are both difficult and hard work, just like I have to work/row very hard to reach the preset end point! ............." https://youtu.be/TEwFgEAI7lI Title: Human Egg vs. Animal Eggdate: 2004/3/7venue : Kaohsiung, Taiwanproject: Taiwan International Performance Art Festival At this time, Tzu-chi was 43 years old and pregnant. The performance was held in a park in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. She asked the audience to break 10 (or more?) chicken eggs, put them in a transparent container and add ketchup there. She took off her top and bottom. The concept for the performance was human eggs vs. animal eggs. She asked people to put the egg and the ketchup in her mouth, but she can't have, so they went on her naked body.

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