123soho Fearture artist, Chin Chih Yang currently featured in the fall 2003 issue of "ART AsiaPacific" Entitled "The Control of Fear: Art & the Epidemic as Excess.

Digital artist Chin Chih Yang has previously created a body of work dealing with the subject of object appropriation within the context of the AIDS epidemic. Yang uses a gasmask in place of a condom in his work The War Against AIDS. He calls into question the AIDS epidemic with multiplicities of meaning by using the mask as sanitizer and tool of war mixed with humor. Similarly, Yang places the image of the mask in relation to SARS in several contexts within his latest SARS art series. He uses the loud reference to Mao and the political implications of the suppression of infomation and taboo associated with the spread of SARS with the Words "Sh! Sh! SARS!" in the rainbow colors of Gay pride.

Yang also posits a bra as the central figure within another of his works containing the SARS mask, reminding us of the chaos spread when bras could be used as a political mask to be removed. Howevert, all the while, he is able to overlay the notion of the banned or interdiction of sexuality, shifting the nebulous essence of the mask as signifier in one gesture.

by Alexandra Chang Managing Editor
Art AsiaPacific Magazine
www.aapmag.com

For full biography and more artworks of Chin Chih Yang, please visit the artist home at 123soho's "Featured Artists" section or at this direct link: www.123soho.com/members/chin_yang .