Animal Farm

Joyce Ho’s works explore moments of tension between dreams and reality, darkness and light, resulting in atmospheres that are uneasy, yet seductive. Her presentation in APT9 featured new and recent examples of painting, sculpture, video and participatory installation.

Ho’s productions bear the hallmarks of her migration from Taiwan to the United States as a teenager, and her return to Taiwan as an adult, experiences she found both liberating and dislocating. Strongly influenced by avant-garde theatre, Ho has created set designs and directed productions. Accordingly, she has a fascination with the theatrical device of the prelude – an opening scene that produces a sense of anticipation – and a desire to extend that suspense infinitely.

In Ho’s work, there is always another layer to the everyday, and always other ways of seeing the familiar. Her striking, minimal aesthetic, combined with her uncanny takes on gender roles, repetitive movement and bureaucratic efficiency set up strange encounters for her audiences.

Exhibited in 'The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art' (APT9) | 24 Nov 2018 – 28 Apr 2019