Born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1971, Yeh Wei-Li immigrated to the United States at the age of eleven in 1982 and returned to reside in Taiwan in 2002. Yeh’s various photographic and textual based projects for the past decade centralize on the personal and socio-‐political relationships between oneself and the city in which he resides and are a continuation of his investigation into documentary practices and the broader ramifications on the relationship between the ‘guest’ and the subject of ‘home.’
In 2007, forces of urban renewal and cultural policies propelled photography-based artist Yeh to abandon his long-term studio/project based on the Treasure Hill Community, located in an illegal ramshackle settlement built on public land in Taipei City. Entitled “Treasure Hill Tea + Photo [ THTP ]”, Yeh's project ran from 2003 to late 2007 in this semi-derelict community which evolved and expanded into the further reconstruction of abandoned spaces into a photography facility and resource center with an outdoor performance space, a rain-collecting pond and a museum that houses salvaged objects from the community. Yeh later took his community-based art practice outside of the metropolitan area and into Yangmei, the birthplace of his parents, where Yeh spent holidays and weekends as a young child. Housed in the defunct historical Pin-Jzeng Cinema, built in 1951 in the Pu-Hsin district of Yangmei Township, New Day Street began in 2008 as Yeh's private studio. In order to engage the community and strategically link contemporary art discourse and human resources of metropolitan Taipei to a small town, Yeh began to transform this cinema into a public exhibition and performance platform along with fellow artists, local relatives and neighbors.
Ironically, or naturally some might say, New Day Street at present faces the same predicament of THTP: the economic forces of urban renewal and real estate development portend eviction. Worse than the predicament of Treasure Hill, New Day Street will face complete demolition for the construction of a sexy high-rise condo. The greater Taipei metropolitan area has stepped up its expansion into Yangmei. Wu Yang Overpass Highway is presently being erected at a maddening pace to connect Taipei to Yangmei, the inner borderland in the countrywide rezoning plan for the greater Taipei metropolitan area.
The selected photography, text, and video works from Yeh Wei-li’s two community projects “New Day Street” and “Treasure Hill” document and elucidate the conflicting realities of the now common and global phenomenon and practice of utilizing “Art and Artists” as a tool and strategy in the process of urban renewal and revitalization projects. We are invited to witness and investigate with Yeh this global phenomenon and to relate ourselves and our surrounding communities and situations in Hong Kong.
