A Nice-Fitted Black Dress for The Accomplished Curator
Curator and Co-founder of SCREEN, Taipei
Known as the co-founder and editor-in-chief of SCREEN, Taiwanese curator Jiayin Chen has been on multiple curatorial projects sprightly since she received her MA at New York University. In 2015, with a noteworthy focus on media art, the accomplished curator has launched her first museum show at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Aside from being a go-ahead mogul, Jiayin avails herself of writing, establishing the bilingual art magazine SCREEN, and contributing her emphatically eloquent writing to ARTY, The Art Newspaper China, Artist Magazine, and more.
In this Style Talk, we chatted with the well-applauded curator about her army knife key chain, the hypnotizing effect of fabric movement, and the artist at heart – her boyfriend!
My ideal working outfit looks like…
A nice fitted black dress is good for all occasions.
What’s best: heels or flats… Which brand or style…
Heels. I especially love looking at shoes but not particularly wearing them. I like the feminine and elegant style of Gianvito Rossi. Or more playful designs like Eamz heels by United Nude too.
My favorite art-related blog or app is…
Content wise Hyperallergic is the best. They have a voice and put a lot of efforts in the editorial work. It’s really difficult to make art writing intriguing and the same time insightful. Usually it just puts people to sleep or else is lacking depth. I also like Nowness, an online video channel showcasing contemporary culture through short films. I found myself lost in these beautiful videos; they are so visual and more engaging than images. I like to pay attention to how technology is transforming media in a new way; art industry has always been relatively slow in catching up with technology because the market is so limited. Perhaps print media are doomed, but the online platforms still leave a lot to be desired at this point. My partners and I have started working on SCREEN since 2014. SCREEN is a Chinese/English online magazine focusing on media art and beyond. We have been partnering with several art fairs and institutions in different cities around the globe since last year; recently we’ve expanded to art consulting and doing more curatorial projects. We’ve built everything from scratch and it’s still very small. But it’s been a lot of fun. I am excited to see there are more and more art start-ups bringing new ideas into the field. I’ve been following TheArtGorgeous and it’s no small feat to garner the attention within such short period of time. Women entrepreneurs who are willing to be the game changer always inspire me.
The last thing I bought and loved was…
Can’t remember.
My personal style signifier(s)/identifier(s) is/are…
Hmm…I don’t wear many colors. Black, white or nude. Simple and unsophisticated. I think my partner Yinmeng has a better style than me; she has an eye for color.
My necessary extravagance is…
Time to myself.
Three things/products I always need to have in my purse are…
Lip Balm, Dior Addict Lipstick, and I like to carry an army knife as my key chain.
My ultimate beauty secret after long working hours is…
Beauty sleep? I’m not sure.
My favorite work(s) of art is/are…
I like many works of art but it’s all about the experience: The most recent one happened when I visited Mori Art Museum in Tokyo couple months ago. It was an installation work, titled Liminal Air Space- Time by artist Shinji Ohmaki in a show curated by Nanjo Fumio and Jean de Loisy. A piece of translucent, light fabric constantly rises and falls in midair, gently making waves against the background of Tokyo city skyline. The free movement of the fabric brings out a soothing yet hypnotizing effect. It’s a magical moment.
Currently in the art world I am excited most about…
Online art sales. It’s always fascinating to me that someone actually purchases a piece of art online, without seeing it in person. But this seems to be really happening and now there are more and more new platforms coming up everyday. Three years ago there were only Artnet and a handful of websites, now we see Christie’s and Sotheby’s, Amazon and Ebay, even video art platforms like Sedition and platforms that charge bitcoins come into the field. It’s interesting to see how this trend evolves over time, and if online art sales would one day replace the traditional gallery system and auction houses.
Most sexiest art person is…
My boyfriend… an artist at heart.
The place I am off to next…
An exhibition I’m curating will open at National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art.
My next art trip/travel is…
Maybe Echigo Tsumari and Setouchi Art triennale in Japan.
In my eyes: the most arty city is…
New York. I would love to go back see the art scene in SOHO in the ‘70s. I particularly like the short film directed by Martin Scorsese in the movie New York Stories (1989), about an artist and his girlfriend. That is my idea of New York’s golden age. Although as Woody Allen would say, this golden age thinking is perhaps “only a romantic resistance to the unpleasant present”. I find Chelsea a charmless art neighborhood and the Armory Week in New York rather a disaster.
Artist(s) we should have on our watchlist…
Last year at New Museum’s Triennial I found the work of Steve Roggenbuck most fascinating. He has a Youtube channel and there he constantly updates poetry, videos, and monologues. All of them are lo-fi productions. It’s all over the place and so full of life. However I think his work can be better experienced virtually on Youtube channel or through on-site performances rather in a museum setting, at least from my perspective. It’s interesting to contemplate on how to display contemporary art today, when artists are creating with different mediums and distributing through virtual platforms. And my friend Jiaxi Yang should be on the watchlist of emerging photographers. I like her deadpan photography that there is always a sense of suspense in ordinary objects.
Instagram: @on_screen_today
Website: onscreentoday.com
Photos by Jiaxi Yang, Wei Hsinyen, Yurong Lee
