Joyce Ho: Peaceful Violence

Having moved to the United States at age 14, Taiwan-born Joyce Ho, has had years to draw inspiration from the difficulties of adapting to a new life. She received her M.A. in Studio Arts from the University of Iowa and then moved back to Taiwan to work on a few projects. She is an interdisciplinary artist with an emphasis in painting, sculpture and theater and she describes her work as peaceful violence.

Her artwork combines realistic qualities with disturbing characteristics and tones them down with bright colors such as yellow to take away from the harshness of her art. Whether it be the way a subject’s eyes are opened, their head positioned, or their body, there is something eerie about Joyce’s art.  In an interview, Joyce said the purpose of her work is to seduce the viewer with bright colors, while simultaneously “confronting them with the damaging characters.” She calls this concept “Peaceful Violence.” The artwork she creates is absolutely stunning and it truly pulls the viewer in because of its brightness. For me, however, it is the eyes of the subject that reels me in. In the majority of Joyce Ho’s works that I’ve seen, I felt as if the characters were looking right at me. It was that creepy eye contact that they made with me that drew me in and kept me wanting to explore the artwork more.  

Sometimes her paintings have no faces at all. Instead they may be replaced with an animal heads such as a deer or a horse-type of head. A few had faces that were misshapen which really emphasized the disturbing qualities. Something that is consistent, however, is the eyes. If the subject of her art has eyes, they are always expressing an emotion of sadness or anger. Quite often there is a theme of death and characters are painted half-dressed or in their night gowns and underwear.

Joyce Ho plans to move back to the states in 2012 and begin working on a few projects here. The almost photographic qualities combined with the fantastical backgrounds, heads, or other miscellaneous objects in her paintings create beautiful, inviting works of art yet stun and sometimes even upset the viewer with their story. Her concept is very unique. Just because something or someone looks bright and happy on the outside, doesn’t mean that they feel that way on the inside.

-Golda Steinberg