Making the Ordinary Extraordinary: YaYa Chow's Crazy Creations

Someone get me that gummi bear chandelier! We here at theMET are crazy about finding everyday items that have been somehow reconfigured to make extraordinary pieces of art. This gummi bear chandelier is made of gummi bears, beads, monofilament, plastic, metal and light bulbs by Tiawanese born, mixed-media artis, YaYa Chou. YaYa explores questions about food consumption and class by rearranging embellished snacks in the forms of luxury commodity. She wants people to ask, "Who consume these foods? Who has the choice to choose?"

YaYa Chou’s works combine humor and commentary on modern lifestyles; they are inspired by language, social phenomenon and melody, stemmed from consumption, theory, and words. Mostly she investigates the assumption of what is natural and what is unnatural. She observes the distinctness of people’s cognitive thinking and the similarity of human experience in different cultures. YaYa is interested in utilizing familiar objects or images to depict the dichotomy found inside highly developed societies. Elements from nature, animal and plant images often appear in her work, because they create an invisible tension or distance from our modern lifestyles.

Close-up of the chandelier

Some other interesting artwork include:

"Joy Coated"gummi bears on toddler mannequin

"Simon," - gummi bears, faux nailtops on wire armature and canvas

"Gummi Mommy," polymer clay and a gummi bear

“Color Based” is a sculpture installation project designed to emphasize the effects of artificial food coloring and flavors on children. Glass bottles filled with Pepto Bismol form a line to resemble industrial conveyor belt; while the circus tent signifies the filling machine which fills children with colorful foods/pharmaceuticals.
She chose Pepto Bismol because the consistency and color reminds her of pigment in acrylic paint instead of edible items, also pink is a unique color that evokes certain emotional response. The circus tent is used here as a symbol of the hyperactivities children display after ingesting artificial food ingredients (food coloring, flavors, saccharin, salicylate… etc.).

If you'd like to see YaYa Chou's work up close, she'll be a part of a four-person show at the Art Gallery at Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA from Feb. 9 - Feb. 28, 2009.

YaYa Chou's website

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