Artist Statement

I started my artist career as an animation filmmaker utilizing hand embroideries as animated objects.
The passion to invent new ways of working with materials later expanded my media to include
sculpture and installation. The visual art practices taught me to go beyond the application of materials
and further explore the cultural meanings behind them.

My work is inspired by observing the living conditions, emotional responses and behaviors of all life forms.
I investigate the interrelationship between collective practices and biological functions. Animals and plants
often appear in my work because their instinctive connections to universal knowledge draw a strong contrast
to the human efforts of attempting an ultimate utopia.

Innovative combination of materials and creative forms are the tools employed to realize these concepts. From
2005 to present, my concerns of toxic food ingredients generated series of sculpture made of gummi bears, licorice
lace, pharmaceuticals and package foods. Other works range from sculpture of burnt toasts, found objects, bronze
to installations in traditional media of paper, clay, glass and fabric. Starting in 2007, the interdisciplinary nature of
my work expanded to include collaborations with glass artists, choreographers, musicians, illustrators, public art
artists and filmmakers. It is my wish to engage different media in order to broaden the experiences and definition of
fine art, in the mean time explore how lives are lived.

Biography

YaYa Chou was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan and currently lives in Los Angeles. She received an MFA in
Experimental Animation from California Institute of The Art, Valencia (2000) and a BA in mass communications
from FuJen University, Taipei, Taiwan (1997).

Chou’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions at d.e.n. contemporary art, West Hollywood, CA and Fort Wayne
Museum of Art in Indiana. Her work has been included in group exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art, NY, Virginia
Museum of Contemporary Art, VA and several southern California venues. Publications that have featured her work
include Sculpture magazine, Fiberarts, Chicago Tribune and Artillery. She is the recipient of the 2011 Fellowship
at the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency, Montalvo Arts Center, CA, and twice she was awarded the Durfee
Foundation Grant (2010 and 2007). Chou has received several honors and awards for her animated films.