In Situ, Grand Courtyard, Taipei, Taiwan (2019)

The exhibition In Situ was installed at the National Taiwan University Public Dormitory in Taipei, a restored building dating to the Japanese occupation of Taiwan (1895–1945). In Situ created the aura of the artist’s studio, a window into his way of thinking and creating. To that end, it presented works in a wide range of media and styles from different periods in Yahon Chang’s career, surrounding the viewer with his very strong and highly individualistic aesthetic. A new, thought-provoking installation was composed of physically layered texts with varying degrees of legibility.

An important aspect of the exhibition was its presentation of Chang’s large-scale gestural ink paintings: In Situ included such works produced during Manifesta 12. In creating them, Chang wielded an enormous brush, channeling immense amounts of energy, or qi, into the body movements required to paint (or, to write Chinese characters) on such a scale. He is able to do this only because of his many decades of Buddhist mental training, as well as physical training, both in traditional calligraphy, and in martial arts such as taiji. The characters he is writing, or images he is painting, provide the thrilling underlying choreography of the performance that results in highly expressive lines and enthralling compositions.
— Britta Erickson