TPG
2023-08
"I’ve been gathering images, qualitative historical data, aesthetics, and even feelings that exist at the margins of categorization. The project focuses on coin-operated children’s rides, which arrived in Taiwan in the form of Mickey Mouse and Pikachu characters from colonial powers. They were maintained by laborers such as my grandfather, whose home fiberglass and paint workshop likely poisoned our three family dogs. Over the years, the rides acquired layers of amateur makeup, their cuteness morphing into the absurd. I’m interested in how these rides contain traces of colonial and post-colonial aesthetics, which were also closely tied to my family’s class position." -- Rosalie Yu