2014 The 12th Taishin Arts Award Exhibition

2014 group exhibition — The 12th Taishin Arts Award Exhibition, MoNTUE. © Jam Wu. Photo courtesy of the artist and Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture.

HO Hsiao-Mei has developed her unique body vocabulary over her long dialectics on “humans” and “puppets” over time. Through changes of trench coats and the human body, she creates the rapidly transitioning context, and the constantly changing relationships within. The slanted surface changes the relationship between the dancers and the floor, as well as the emotional gravity and balance. Dancers run as if flying at times, and cling on as if afraid of falling off ; the most complicated entanglement of intimate relationship is hidden under the romantic ties on surface. Ho is not trying to depict the superficial emotions in today’s Taiwan; rather, she wants to represent the emotional experience deep inside Taiwanese people’s sub-consciousness. A twisted horizon is used as the main stage in this interdisciplinary cooperation with paper-cutting artist Jam Wu. The dance performance uses costumes, light and shades, and paper-cutting art to bring strong visual tensions to the three-dimensional space of the stage, creating brand new dancing bodies.