The Museum of Vancouver hosts Mirage: Disused Public Property in Taiwan, an exhibition with Taiwanese Artist Yao Jui-Chung. We invite you to join us for a curatorial tour of the exhibition with our Curator of Urban Cultures, Denise Fong and collaborator Young-Tack (YT) Oh.
Along with pointing out highlights in the exhibition, Denise and YT will share behind the scenes process of working with the artist and placing his work in a local context.
About the exhibition: Mirage: Disused Public Property in Taiwan covers 10 years of artist Yao Jui-Chung and his students’ use of photography to expose Taiwan’s “mosquito halls.” Starting in the 1970s, Taiwan invested in convention centres, sports facilities, schools and other public structures, only to abandon them. The term “mosquito halls” comes from the stagnant water that gathers and breeds mosquitoes in these structures and spaces.
“In this age of transparency, covering up only causes more harm. The mission of this project is to examine the condition of public space usage from the perspective of the peoples. The whole world is facing the same problem, but Taiwan is willing to face it, deal with it, and let go, which can set an example for the international community.” —Yao Jui-Chung, Artist
The tour starts promptly at 6:30pm and will run for about 45 minutes to an hour. Denise and YT will stay after for an informal Q&A. Tickets to this event include admission to all the Museum’s galleries. Consider arriving early to visit. Please note that we close promptly at 8:00pm!
Date: July 25, 2024
Time: 6:30-7:30pm
Tickets:
$15 Student/Seniors/Members
$23 General
(plus fees and taxes)
If you are having trouble using the embedded form above, please try to reserve your ticket directly on Eventbrite here.
For general inquiries regarding this event, please contact the Programming Department here.
Meet your guides:
Young-Tack (YT) Oh is an architectural thinker and founding member of Archipleasure. His speculative research explicates on the marginal and overlooked occurrences in contemporary urbanism—how seemingly inconsequential things form the basis of major movements and systems— and from which subversive and more playful interventions are generated. The work consistently seeks renewed interpretations of architecture that cast more inclusive ambitions and exuberant prospects for the built environment. YT values accessibility to creative humanities to generate stewardship and debate spatial politics.
YT has taught at the UBC School of Architecture and Landscapes Architecture and helped build the local component of the “Mirage” exhibition which features some of his former students’ work. In addition, YT has been the inaugural Interdisciplinary Design Fellow at University of British Columbia, a Banham Fellow at the University at Buffalo, and a Mellon Fellow in Egalitarianism and the Metropolis at University of Michigan.
Denise Fong is the Curator of Urban Cultures at MOV and is currently completing her PhD in UBC’s Interdisciplinary Studies program. Before joining the Museum, she was a heritage planning assistant for the City of Burnaby’s community planning division. She is the recipient of UBC’s Public Scholars Award (2021) and Public Humanities Award (2023) and has co-curated the award-winning history exhibitions Across the Pacific at the Burnaby Village Museum and A Seat at the Table: Chinese Immigration and British Columbia featured at the Museum of Vancouver and the Chinese Canadian Museum of BC.