Aaron NIEH, Yung-Chen｜18th Street Arts Center - Arts Residency Network Taiwan 藝術進駐網

Location	USA / Los Angeles
Residency	18th Street Arts Center
Year of the Grant	2009
Work	Lost in Translation

NIEH Yung-Chen, born in 1977. NIEH studied Commercial design at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology. Nieh is among the few most outstanding designers of Taiwan in the past decade, with a body of work seen extensively in the music industry, publications and art-related projects. Every single birth of his work is sure to appeal to a great public of the greater China’s vast consumer society. Nieh is most celebrated for his careful arrangements of the fonts and his peculiar sensitivity to the various forms of language with their corresponding visuals. He’s

an aesthetic trendsetter affirmed. He became member of AGI last year.

Artist Statement:

I am interested in the syntactical playfulness in the input and output of a language. I think that the ‘Dadaist Phenomenon’ of language, situations when languages are interpreted and misinterpreted, appears often in the strangest city with the most strangers. This phenomenon includes the miscodings of words, symbols, and forms. Its content intersects and combines into a “line-up” of visual space that is filled with imagination.

I thought about how to transform these linguistic elements into a powerful, perceptive, and interesting exhibition, combining simple, didactic descriptions, as well as my own strength in visual presentation. This was an experiment I conducted during my artist residency: an expressive experimental movement from conveying something to conveying nothing, if anything at all.

18th Street Arts Center is located in Los Angeles. I was inspired by the different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures that contributed to the city’s multi-faceted characteristics. California’s climate is mild and sunny. I could feel the city’s energy becoming more present and apparent in its residents, things, and environment than any other places I visited.

Hollywood made Los Angeles an entertainment center for the film, music, and visual culture industries. I met many artist friends who were deeply engaged with Hollywood’s cultural industries. Among them were movie directors, agents, and game designers. Living in Los Angeles as an artist in residence allowed me to fully immerse myself in where things happened. This has affected how I view the process of change in the environment through innovation and cultural creation.

Los Angeles is a big city. Although there is a public mass transportation system in place, it is not a very convenient city to get around. Most residents drive like in many other cities in the United States. I suggest future resident artists rent a car to get to know more about the city.

Artists

Aaron NIEH, Yung-Chen

Aaron NIEH, Yung-Chen