With a nickname like Typhoon, you might expect something usual from 20-year-old Taiwanese artist Lin Ching-fong. His latest work, Tai Ke (2005-2006), is an attempt to combine art and colloquial slang. Nothing out of the ordinary in that - except that he uses his naked body.
Lin says tai ke was used to address Taiwanese low lifes - that is, betel nut-chewers and thugs. But the phrase has slowly evolved, and now reflects a certain part of the Taiwanese identity.
'For a while, the phrase was in limbo, just as Taiwan is politically,' he says. 'That's when I thought of ways to identify tai ke and how I could incorporate other Taiwanese slang terms into my work.'
The first attempt in Lin's Tai Ke series resulted in a collection of nude self-portraits in oil. In shades of grey and hazy blue, Lin uses his body to express 24 Taiwanese slang phrases.
In Chay! (meaning, 'Let's split!'), Lin's portrait is split in half. In Tzua Sai ('explosive diarrhoea'), Lin sits on a toilet, holding on for dear life. And in Firing a Gun, he stands next to a huge ball, masturbating.
The process of creating the collection was fun, but Lin wanted to create work that would engage his audience, too. So he added wheels to the bottom of his canvases. 'Why not put wheels on the 24 canvases and let people interact with the art by kicking it?' Lin asks. 'The canvases can become like mahjong tablets swimming across the gallery floor.'
Lin's artistic career began three years ago when he defied his parents' wish for him to enter a more acceptable profession and moved into his art teacher's studio. Setting out on his creative path, he experimented with a wide range of media, until he settled on installations.