Differentiating between our real selves and our digital selves with artist John Yuyi

Currently based in New York, John Yuyi is a Taiwanese artist who was launched into the spotlight following the success of her FACE POST project. FACE POST was a photo series in which she affixed temporary transfer tattoos of old photos on the faces and bodies of herself and her friends. The idea of using temporary tattoos in this project would become the springboard for Yuyi’s now-signature aesthetic. And today – having completed multiple collaborations with luxury fashion brands and a successful solo exhibition in New York – Yuyi has proven herself a force to be reckoned with in the international art scene.

John Yuyi（江宥仪）是来自台湾、现在在纽约生活的艺术家。在早先的《FACE POST》系列里，她将自己上传过的照片做成纹身贴纸，转印在脸和身体上，这样有趣又前所未见的作品形式让她开始受到广大的关注。艺术生涯还很年轻，但 John Yuyi 已经在纽约办过个人展览、收过来自国际品牌的合作邀约。面对一步一步逐渐堆叠的名气，她始终维持自己稳定前进的步调，在创作路上不改依然故我的态度。

Throughout Yuyi’s works, the internet is one of the most prevalent topics explored. In this age of interconnectivity, our computers and phones have become invaluable devices that connect us with the world at large, and social media is a large part of the internet ecosystem. However, social media has proven itself to be a double-edged blade for many artists: Social media can be beneficial in bringing attention to the works of up-and-coming artists, but the quest for bigger followings and more “likes” can easily lead to self-imposed creative stagnation.

Today, rather than simply being spaces to share and communicate ideas with others, social media has come to define our identity. People meticulously curate posts to project a flawless digital persona, “likes” on social media have become metrics to measure our value as individuals, and many, like Yuyi, can find that differentiating between our real self and digital self has become increasingly difficult. Cognizant of these issues, much of Yuyi’s works – which is often jam-packed with symbols from Twitter, Instagram, and other notable platforms – serve as a reminder, or perhaps a warning, of this over-reliance on social media.

在现今这个人人与网络紧密连结的世代里，手机成为我们观看外在的窗口。对艺术家来说，网络媒体的存在像是双面刃，能让作品轻易且有效的曝光，反过来却也可能就此限制住自己。

在 John Yuyi 的创作中，Instagram 和 Twitter 是频繁出现的符码。社交网络不单单作为她发佈作品的平台，甚至是创作的素材、灵感的发源地。有些时候，社交网络完全定义了我们，我们依靠一张张照片和一则则发言来拼凑别人眼中的自己，久而久之越来越脱离不了。社交网络确实操控了我们的生活，某种程度上我们都像是为了网络上自己的分身而活。John Yuyi 的作品作为一个提醒，让我们开始反思这样荒唐的现况。

As someone who recognizes her own dependence on social media, Yuyi confesses that the line between an influencer and an artist can seem blurred at times. It’s something that she herself often struggles to differentiate. The goals for an online influencer and an artist do admittedly have certain overlaps. While they’re both seeking recognition to some extent, their motivations are drastically different. For an online influencer, they’re marketing themselves as the intended product, but for an artist, their creations are the intended product. “In the past, I’d think about how many ‘likes’ I can get on my uploads,” she shares of her former insecurities. “But now, I don’t think about it like that. My content isn’t catered for Instagram. I create for myself.”

网红与网络艺术家，同样都是在吸引网民的目光，本质上却不太一样——前着借的是自己，后者借的是创作。John Yuyi 承认自己曾经非常依赖网络媒体，在两者模煳不清的分界之间，花上了一段时间来确立自己的定位。“以前的我会常常去猜想 po 这张照片能获得多少喜欢，但现在的我尽量不这么做，不为了 Instagram 去设计内容，而是以 ‘自己’ 为出发点去创作。”

Aside from her internet-inspired works, Yuyi’s approach of using temporary tattoos and human bodies as canvases continues in her other projects. Often times, ideas simply come from her day-to-day life, whether it be a sentence from a book she’s reading or lyrics from a song she just heard. Yuyi’s success as an artist comes from her talents of recognizing these hidden stories – her works present these overlooked stories as they are, but her visual approach adds the context required for her audience to fully appreciate these observations. “I find a lot of inspiration in my daily life,” she tells us. “I think of creating art like writing a journal. It’s simply a summary of all that I see and experience.”

之后 John Yuyi 持续蒐集符号和标誌，有时是书里读到的一段情节、或一段喜欢的歌词，灵感的足迹遍佈生活各处的小细节。“我的灵感都来自我的生活，创作对我来说像在写日记一样，我只是把我看到的、我想到的、我所在的世界记录下来。” 她用既已存在的故事来说故事，来自一双比常人更细腻、更专注的眼睛，这些事物早就存在在那，只是你我从未发现而已。在她的小世界里，没有什么是不合时宜。

Humbly, Yuyi says the successful conclusion of her debut solo exhibition in New York was the best birthday present she could’ve received this year. The next stop for her will be Los Angeles where she’ll host her second-ever solo exhibition, My (Temporary) Self. The exhibition will debut at Make Room on March 24th, 2018 and run until April 22nd, 2018.

John Yuyi 向我们开心的说今年的生日礼物，是顺利在纽约举行的第一场个人展览。而下一站她要前往洛杉矶，带着第二场个展《MY (TEMPORARY) SELF》于 2018 年 3 月 24 日至 4 月 22 日期间，在 Make Room 跟大家见面。