Joyce Ho
Courtesy of the artist and TKG+, Taipei
Joyce Ho
Taiwan born 1983
Level 2
NGV International
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PROJECT
Heads down is an artwork you can touch. Taiwanese artist Joyce Ho has turned rope bollards on their heads, creating an error in the everyday that asks us to reconsider how we interact with barriers and ordinary objects. Visitors are encouraged to gently push the steel stanchion posts, so they rock side to side. The work’s concept came about during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Ho observed how quickly individuals adapted to scanning QR codes to check into locations. Through Heads down, Ho explores muscle memory and the authority of barriers in retraining the body’s relationship to space, habit and ritual.
In her practice Joyce Ho deconstructs movements and fragments of daily rituals to explore the relationship between people and the space they inhabit. In her video work VERA X diary index, Ho depicts a protagonist in different idle spaces in a home setting. Scrutinising how she interacts with her temporary home, the work becomes a query about the balance between humanity and space. As she inserts herself into vacant spaces, the line between human and furniture blurs as both serve to balance each scene.
ABOUT
Joyce Ho is an interdisciplinary artist, working across painting, sculpture and theatre. By integrating the deconstruction of movements and fragmentation of daily rituals with rich and illusory light and shadow, the artist demonstrates the intimate and isolating tensions between people and reality. Ho has exhibited internationally, including at the National Gallery Singapore; Asia Society Museum, New York; Yokohama Museum of Art; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Busan Museum of Art, Korea; and National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung.
Purchased, NGV Foundation, 2023