Wanting to be a writer and a comic artist as a child, Jo Yeh found illustration marries these two impulses and promises me a more conceptual approach to narrative by first visualizing, and then representing the metaphors proposed in her stories. Yeh specializes in narrative and story-based illustrations as an illustrator, but also, her skills in storyboarding and directing have significantly benefited in telling visual stories through a “camera vision,” which creates a rhythm and a narrative climax on a flat surface.
Born and raised in Taiwan, a small island country that has been colonized multiple times, Jo’s generation is called the “rootless generation,” because of the lack of a national and cultural identity, and her “rootless” feeling has only grown stronger with time, as she stays in the states. After some identity-seeking preliminary projects, Yeh’s thesis project evolved toward that which responds to the fundamental question: “What makes a being an identity?” To approach this difficult question, she chose to use animal figures instead of human figures to subtly echo the issues of difference and identity. Using animals will also allow a gap between those aspects about identity that create conflict in favor of a “soft” introduction of difference.
Be sure to join us on Friday May 15th at Public Functionary to see Jo’s performance and thesis work along with the other 2015 graduates
MFA Thesis Exhibition and Reception
For more on Yeh: http://joyehillustration.com/
