Tao Hui

Born in Yunyang, Chongqing and a graduate from Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Tao Hui currently lives and works in Beijing, China. With an initial degree in Oil Painting, Tao traversed into the art of video and installation, drawing from personal memories, visual experiences and popular culture to weave an experimental visual narration, the focus of which is often our collective experience. Running throughout his work is a sense of misplacement vis-à-vis social identity, gender status, ethnicity and cultural crisis, prompting the audience to face their own cultural histories and living conditions. Finished in his art school years, Mongolism is a Tao Hui’s production deriving from the classic TV costume drama My Fair Princess (還珠格格) from 1990s. By incorporating phenomena, experience and imagination, Tao Hui presented a “sequel” to the TV show with an ending that he would like to see. This could be referred to the first stage of his practice. Mongolism addresses the mental condition of young people in the process of modernization across geographical ideologies, with improvised videography to control the actors and the framework of the TV series to control the plot. Traditional art and folk culture are the major influences on the production. An isolated political picture is construct by its illogical relationships between characters. The work could be conceived as a soap opera about the self-spiritual recognition.

This film was exhibited at “18th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil: Southern Panoramas”, São Paulo, 2013; “Chongqing Independent Film & Video Festival”, Chongqing, 2011; “70th Anniversary of Birth of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute”, Chongqing Art Museum, Chongqing, 2010.