Chou Yen-Hsu: Summoner of Birds

Born in Taiwan in 1997, Chou Yen-Hsu is currently based in the United Kingdom. He received his MFA in Fine Art from the University of the Arts London in 2023 and is now pursuing further studies at the University of Oxford. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Arsenale in Venice.

 

"The Yeti, we have Shakespeare." This line, taken from A Journey Not Taken to the Himalayas by Polish poet Wisława Szymborska, lingers as a quiet invocation. It evokes a poetic gesture of civilization reaching toward the wild, and it remains with the artist as an idea that gradually takes shape over time.

 

The exhibition Summoner of Birds stems from Chou's childhood fascination with birds and expands into a meditation on the boundaries and disconnections between living species and human-dominated spaces. In this work, the artist appears in a Ghillie suit and performs on the cello in London's St James's Park. Disguised and immersed in the natural surroundings, he inhabits a figure that is both human and otherworldly.

 

Surrounded by pigeons drawn in by scattered feed, his body movements prompt a subtle dance of proximity and withdrawal. Their shifting positions mirror his own gestures, forming a quiet rhythm of presence and distance. Within this dynamic, Chou searches for a fragile equilibrium and a sense of poetic intimacy.

 

Nature in Chou's practice is both real and imagined. His works often rely on actual landscapes, but he also constructs speculative ecosystems that resemble the worlds of science fiction. Through these invented environments, he creates spaces of reflection and finds moments of comfort and healing in the midst of a complex material world.