We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Joyce Ho / Taiwan b.1983 / Overexposed memory (still, detail) 2015 / Single-channel video: 5:00 minutes, colour, sound / Purchased 2018. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Joyce Ho / Image courtesy: The artist and TKG+, Taipei
Joyce HoOverexposed memory 2015
On Display: Regional Touring Exhibition
In Joyce Ho’s video, Overexposed memory 2015, shot against a lemon yellow wall, an actor slowly squeezes and bites into different pieces of fruit; the camera lingers on their surfaces until they collapse into a pulpy mush. To emphasise the effect, the artist boiled the fruit before painting the surfaces in their original colours to create the illusion of ripeness — as they break apart, the paint mingles unnaturally with their juices. Even the soundtrack is deliberately odd; the viewer does not hear the manipulation of the fruit itself, but rather the rustle of packaging and a satisfying ‘ding’ as the actor’s teeth bite into a cherry tomato.
Joyce Ho’s works explore gender roles, bureaucratic control and cultural conventions. With a striking, minimal aesthetic, her works often set up strange encounters for her audiences. Her paintings, installations, videos and performance works use saturated planes of colour — cool yellows and sickly greens — that typically surround neatly groomed young women. The women represent the artist herself, but also act as guides who help audiences navigate nonsensical but compelling rituals. Ho’s interest in the tensions between dreams and reality, and darkness and light, creates works with unusual atmospheres and strange situations that can be uneasy, seductive and playfully humorous.