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M+, Hong Kong. Gift of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in connection with The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative, 2019, © Chia-En Jao
Chia-En Jao 饒加恩
Taxi 計程車
2016
Taxi centres around a series of conversations between Chia-En Jao and five taxi drivers in Taipei. The artist directs each driver, whom he films unobtrusively from the back seat, to a place charged with political significance for post-war Taiwan. Some sites are landmarks, such as the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Grand Hotel. Others are less public, including the residence where the dissident Lin Yi-hsiung’s family was murdered in 1980and the American Military Club.
Taxi is characteristic of Jao’s practice, which investigates complex issues of power, identity, and postcolonial history through multiple perspectives. As he rides, he asks questions that gently elicit the drivers’ recollections and opinions related to the destinations. While some are more outspoken than others, each relays experiences that show how geopolitics has overlaid their lives. For example, one driver was a former member of the ‘Frogmen’, an elite amphibious unit in the Taiwanese Marine Corps; another began driving after he refused to follow his previous employer to mainland China. The casual interviews are interspersed with dialogue-free footage of the sites themselves.
Taxi is characteristic of Jao’s practice, which investigates complex issues of power, identity, and postcolonial history through multiple perspectives. As he rides, he asks questions that gently elicit the drivers’ recollections and opinions related to the destinations. While some are more outspoken than others, each relays experiences that show how geopolitics has overlaid their lives. For example, one driver was a former member of the ‘Frogmen’, an elite amphibious unit in the Taiwanese Marine Corps; another began driving after he refused to follow his previous employer to mainland China. The casual interviews are interspersed with dialogue-free footage of the sites themselves.
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