Artist Bio
Szu-Chieh Yun is a Taiwanese-American artist based in Boston, MA. She received her MFA from University of Arts London at Wimbledon College of Arts 2016 and her BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2011, during which she completed a semester abroad in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China. Her work has been exhibited in the U.S. and internationally. Szu-Chieh is an experienced visual arts educator who has worked extensively with low-income students in Boston as a mentor and internationally as an art teacher in Shanghai. She attended Studios at Mass MoCA in 2022 and is currently a Studio Resident at the Boston Center for the Arts.
Artist Statement
My current work uses humor and beauty to examine the current social and cultural climate of the United States in the Rage & Ecstasy series.
Rage & Ecstasy examines the “Karen” phenomenon—viral videos of entitled white women displaying violent, aggressive behaviors in public spaces. A simple Google search of “Central Park Karen” yields a video of a white woman falsely accusing an African American man of threatening her life in Central Park. Other examples of Karen connected to a business or a public space, such as Starbucks Karen and San Francisco Karen, can also be found through a quick search. These videos showcase a particular form of violence that weaponizes privilege and vulnerability. The spectacle and viral spreading of Karen operates as a response to the current social climate, while simultaneously separating the phenomenon from critical dialogue. To understand why the Karen spectacle is so captivating, familiar, and a part of the mass cultural imagination, I imagine myself as Karen caught on camera in a state of ecstatic primal rage. From these imaginations, I create humorous, surreal paintings that explore themes of desire, femininity, and power.
My research draws from art history, personal accounts, and the internet. These paintings are an allegory for abuse of power. The Karen spectacle occurs in places like Starbucks, Whole Foods, and the Apple store—places of abusive capitalism where products from other countries are sold, natural resources extracted, and underpaid labor exploited. Karen, in turn, is a part of the cycle of abuse.
Humor is used as an opening to examine painful subjects. What makes something funny? Are we laughing from crying? Is it a release from tension? Is it also something that is true? The fact that we can laugh at Karen, a person who feels like they are not getting what they are entitled to and goes out to public spaces to take it, we laugh at her because her entitlement is seen as obscene. I believe the viral videos of Karen have an element of humor because she is a woman. Her aggression is seen as benign, but is there anything funny about the male version of Karen?
I offer my paintings as spaces to open difficult conversations, to reconcile, and to acknowledge that we live in a painful system. I hold space for others to make sense of the cycle of abuse and to release themselves from the phenomenon. My work is visceral and seductive, holding a space to laugh, be angry, feel sad, and to be consumed by absurdity.