Draft:Hou Shur-Tzy

Hou Shur-Tzy
A female visual artist from Taiwan whose contributions conveyed feminism

Hou Shur-Tzy (18 October 1962 - 3 December 2023) a visual artist from Chiayi, Taiwan, developed a passion for photography early in life. Her engagement in public affairs and cultural initiatives went beyond academia. She showcased a commitment to promoting the arts through policy analysis, research, and formulation.

Hou Shur-Tzy, influenced by the women’s liberation movement, used her art to pursue gender equality by challenging the male gaze. Since 2005, she had been residing in Kaohsiung, where she became aware of the issue of "Vietnamese brides," leading her to create visual works that condense the oral stories of these brides, highlighting their experiences and struggles through images and text.

Early life and Education
Hou Shur-Tzy was born in 1962 in Chiayi, Taiwan, and spent her years in Taipei. Her passion for photography ignited at an early age when her parents gifted her a camera upon receiving her college acceptance. This gesture sparked a fascination with the art form and its potential for storytelling.

Hou Shur-Tzy finished her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1985. Later on, Hou Shur-Tzy further pursued her academic journey with a commitment to mastering the degree of arts. In 1992, she earned her master’s degree in visual arts at Rochester Institute of Technology. Hou Shur-Tzy continued her academic journey in the following year as a special student in the sculpture department at Alfred University, Alfred, NY. In 1994, she completed her studies and received a Certificate in Photographic Preservation and Archival Practice, International Museum of Photography, George Eastman House.

Public Affairs
Beyond her academic pursuits, Hou Shur-Tzy dedicated herself to public affairs and cultural initiatives. She served as a Legislative Assistant in the Legislation Yuan, where she honed her skills in policy analysis and research. Transitioning to the Department of Cultural Affairs in Taipei City Government, she was responsible for shaping art policy the preparation, research, and formulation of cultural policies, showcasing her talent and commitment to promoting the arts. Furthermore, she also devoted herself to the Commissioned research projects on the reuse of idle spaces organized by the Ministry of Culture.

Style and influence
Influenced by the women’s liberation movement, Hou Shur-Tzy has been dedicated to pursuing gender equality. Her work employs a strategy of female desire, gender crossing, and political practice to shatter the silence.

Since 2005, Hou Shur-Tzy has been residing in Kaohsiung for work. While there, she noticed the common sign of "Vietnamese brides."

This led her to explore the existence of foreign brides.

She edits and condenses the oral stories of Vietnamese brides, narrating them in the first person to create written accounts of each person’s life story, and through the representation of images, their faces could be seen by the audience. Hou Shur-Tzy’s uses silence in her visual works to show the introverted and restrained traits of Asian women. Violence is internalized into single photos accompanied by a few lines of text using the original narrative of the Vietnamese bride’s family.

Works
Gaze Towards the Other Side,The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ  is created by Hou Shur-Tzy in 2010 and curated by curator Huang Sun-Quan. The title of the work originates from a story Hou Shur-Tzy was told by a local secretary during her visit to the Vietnamese consulate, about the conversations between Vietnamese brides and Taiwanese husbands. Gaze Towards the Other Side, The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ was nominated for The 9th Taishin Arts Award, and ranked ninth in the 2010 Artist Magazine's annual top ten government-sponsored exhibitions.

Gaze Towards the Other Side, The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ continues the themes of Transgression and Migration,The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅰ (2005) and Transgression and Identity,The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅱ (2008), and is presented through video installations and video installations. In the work, she interviewed the native families of foreign spouses to discuss the inequalities in cross-border marriages.

At the Forum You, Me, and Them symposium in 2017 at Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, when Hou Shur-Tzy discussed the challenges of creating Gaze Towards the Other Side, The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ, she mentioned being questioned about whether Gaze Towards the Other Side, The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ  was based on the misfortune of others. She believed that even though art can solve few problems, it compels us to confront them. Gaze Towards the Other Side, The Songs of Asian Brides Ⅲ was exhibited in 2009 at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and in 2010 at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts.