My favorite magazine, FiberArts just published their Nov/Dec issue. I spend more time reading FiberArts than any other sculpture or fine art publishings, especially this issue.
Because on the last page, you will see, yaya's gummi bear Chandelier is hanging high and happily on top of an article about yaya's gummi works. A full page, all by myself! Liz did such a good job writing it, even made me feel curious about myself.
If you hurry enough, you can still get a copy in your local bookstore and treat yourself with the endless inspiration offered by maticulous fingers & marvelous minds. But if you are shocked by the high price of paper nowadays, I will help you read for free!
YaYa Chou: Bear Bulbs
YaYa Chou, a native of Taiwan who now lives in Los Angeles, has a lot to say about the relationship between society and nature. Her work addresses culture's tendency to cause alientation from nature; she often juxtaposes animals within domestic objects and scenes to illustrate these ideas. Chou's Chandelier is part of a series of gummy-bear sculptures that highlight the artificiality of the animal-shaped candy snacks. With their jewel tones and translucent qualities, she thinks they look more like decoration than something edible and notes that even when the bears were left out for cats, roaches, and ants, none showen interest in eating the candy.
I took Chou two months to thread thirty pounds of gummy bears onto monofilament to create the chandelier. The untreated bears show very few signs of deterioration since the chandelier's completion in Jund 2005. Even after more than a year, they are still fragrant and squeezable. At this rate, Chou believes the chandelier could last ten years and shine on as a symbol of our distant relationship to nature.
Liz Good, “Curtains: YaYa Chou: Bear Bulbs,”
Fiberarts magazine Vol.33, No.3, Nov/Dec 2006, page 80
