Probing and formally innovative, the work of Hong Kong-born artist Yau Ching strategically pulls apart the conventional relationship between spectator and text. Inverting the roles of "tourist" and "native," Yau Ching rigorously interrogates the politics of representation, particularly in relation to questions of gender, exile, and cultural translation. Difference emerges as a core theme in her work, invoked and challenged by the incongruities of public and private memories. Yau Ching's imagery is complexly layered, moving from diaristic documentary video to richly processed found footage. Issues of language and the limitations of expression are foregrounded, as she draws upon diverse sources, from personal memoirs and "video letters" to historically disparate literary and theoretical works. Fragmented voices and texts point to the failure of language to fix identity, and to the meaning…
