David Yu knows all the things is a performance installation intervention that pokes fun at gallery sensibilities and audience expectations. The work involves a flat screen television installed high up above the entrance of the gallery salon styled. The television plays CP24 Toronto’s Breaking News (the 24 hour news channel in Toronto). A dedicated performer watches the screen for the duration of the exhibition and recites a script to viewers if they are spoken to. Viewers entering the space are confronted with a live person facing them watching the television.

This work touches on multiple layers of intervention within the gallery context. The use of CP24 is intentional - CP24 is in every waiting room as background noise. It is the quintessential epitome of the listless passing of time. CP24 is also a marker of the present; it is a constant repetition of breaking news recycled over and over again in nuanced ways. Presenting this unaltered to audience provides a cynical break from the art galleries atmosphere—an atmosphere filled with waiting and often boredom. The waiting room aspect is also repeated in the altered chair the actor is sitting in. The width of the chair is shortened therefore if viewers decide to sit with the actor the are forced into very close proximity of the actor/stranger.

The performer dedicated to watching the broadcast creates a parallel to audience viewers consuming art within the fair. The performer adds a layer of legitimacy to the piece - bringing the dialogue back to fine art and also activating the TV screen/content. The performer also provides a “safe space” for others to watch the news within the gallery as well. It could be argued that this performance will also be a body endurance piece as well, a tongue and cheek nod towards 1970’s performance works.

Lastly, the actors cast are of east Asian decent. Viewers walking into the gallery will walk through a curtain with “David Yu” embroidered to it. Confronted with an Asian person viewers will then need to negotiate whether the person sitting there is a performer, the artist, or just a spectator. David Yu knows all the things plays with fluxus concepts of creating open ended artworks that are inclusive of audience which bridges the gap between art and life. It brings into questions of what is the art? Is this really CP24? Is that a performer? Is that David Yu?

David Yu knows all the things

Performance/Installation: Actors, Embroidered Curtain, Flat Screen TV playing CP24, Altered Chairs

Actors: Quang Ngo-Trong & Linda Wong

YYZ Artists’ Outlet

Toronto, Canada

2018