The Insatiable

The Insatiable. © 2010 Jawshing Arthur Liou.

The Insatiable is a video installation composited from a dozen sets of footage filmed at an open night market in Taiwan. It is part of the Things that are edible series, created by artist Jawshing Arthur Liou during an artistic residency in his hometown of Taipei after 16 years of living abroad. Working with both lens-based representation and digital post-production, Liou aims to transform recognizable imagery into realms only the mind can reach. His photographically realistic digital videos are filled with details with which he responds to the experience of illness, spiritual sanctuary, and the spectacles of life. The street scenes here are only half a mile away from his home. The visual strategy is a fusion of macro and micro views. The streetlights and mingling walkers are transformed into bodies of massive creatures, bearing resemblance to snakes, dragons, or even huge intestines. Liou says, “Our intimacy with food and food-related culture makes this my first choice of subject matter. With digital post-production tools, I transformed the night market into massive bodies in the sky, a wedding banquet into jewelry-banded plates, and my mother’s rice dish into landscapes.” In this way he creates “a rewarding treat in and of itself.”

The Insatiable. © 2010 Jawshing Arthur Liou.

Originally from Taiwan, artist Jawshing Arthur Liou has resided in the US since 1994. He received his MFA in electronic intermedia and photography from the University of Florida. He is currently an associate professor and area head of digital art at Indiana University Bloomington. Liou’s videos and prints are held in numerous public and private collections. Recent acquisitions include the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Liou’s work has traveled internationally, including exhibitions in New York, Chicago, London, Montréal, Houston, and Taipei. Liou is the recipient of the Garry B. Fritz Award from the Society for Photographic Education, the Rising Star Award at Fotofusion, and an Efroymson Contemporary Arts Fellowship.