Born in Yunyang,Chongqing and a graduate from Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Tao Hui currently lives and works in Beijing, China. With an initial degree in Oil Painting, Tao traversed into the art of video and installation, drawing from personal memories, visual experiences and popular culture to weave an experimental visual narration, the focus of which is often our collective experience. Running throughout his work is a sense of misplacement vis-à-vis social identity, gender status, ethnicity and cultural crisis, prompting the audience to face their own cultural histories and living conditions.
Located in the northeast of Chongqing in China, Yunyang borders the Sichuan Basin whose cultural environment constitutes a melting pot of collected memories, folklore, hearsay, and reality. Subtly evolving beyond these cornerstones is Tao’s practice, which comprises multiple captures along a singular sequence: a flutter of the imagination, a nonsensical remark, a day in passing. ‘1 Character & 7 Materials’ (2015), for instance, features seven 1-minute videos conceived from Tao’s journal, depicting ethnic minority girls in the rain, a journalist interviewing a corpse, and a spirit cruising a river. These visual fragments flesh out an achronological narrative that prompts re-choreography and exploration, both imaginative and actual, of a parallel universe subject to the audience’s experience of the work.
An aspiring filmmaker, who perchance took oil painting as an initial standing point, Tao was exposed for the formative parts of his early years to a fascination with television as a portal to the world beyond rural Yunyang. Citing domestic TV shows as inspiration, Tao’s cinematography explores our existence in light of increased digitisation, as well as the status of television as a cathartic twist on the trials rooted in daily life. As such, Tao prompts considerations regards the dynamics between life and theatricality: is life imitating art, or is art documenting life? ‘The Acting Tutorial’ (2014) depicts a group of women reenacting, under the direction of a drama teacher, emotionally problematic situations such as a break-up, a fire, or obstructed labour. The students’ resulting distress references Jacob Levy Moreno’s psychodrama, which emphasises the analysis and liberation of suppressed feelings. Blurring the line between imagination and reality in a dramatisation of obstructed labour, the actresses burn one of their own to death.
In 2017 Tao Hui was nominated for HUGO BOSS Asia Art Award for Emerging Artists, where he presented ‘Hello, finale!’ (2017), a video installation conceived from his residency in Japan. Multiple screens depict nine people from all walks of life across Japanese society – including a waiter, a school girl, a child, a religious ascetic and a media professional – engaging in phone conversations about endings and death. The nine videos on display, which share no actual connection, lead to individual contemplation of each piece whilst alluding to the incomplete stories of the protagonists as well as their possible interrelations. Seemingly further away from his initial aspirations, Tao has in fact created a realm of possibilities beyond the conceived limits of television and film using the language of video, installation and audience engagement. ‘Hello, finale!’ elevates the experimental concept behind ‘1 Character & 7 Materials’, bringing to transcendence Tao’s visual semiosis. Deconstructive in its essence and raw in its narrative, Tao’s storytelling continues to evolve from the imagery in ‘1 Character & 7 Materials’ through life as seen in ‘Hello, finale!’, opening the floodgates to – and testing – the cornerstones of our own remits of cognisance.
Tao Hui Beijing, China, B. Chongqing, China, 1987

Tao Hui, ‘Searing Pain’ at Aranya Art Center
Courtesy of Aranya Art Center
Photography: Sun Shi
© Tao Hui

Tao Hui, ‘Searing Pain’ at Aranya Art Center
Courtesy of Aranya Art Center
Photography: Sun Shi
© Tao Hui

Tao Hui, ‘Searing Pain’ at Aranya Art Center
Courtesy of Aranya Art Center
Photography: Sun Shi
© Tao Hui

Tao Hui, ‘Searing Pain’ at Aranya Art Center
Courtesy of Aranya Art Center
Photography: Sun Shi
© Tao Hui

Tao Hui, ‘Searing Pain’ at Aranya Art Center
Courtesy of Aranya Art Center
Photography: Sun Shi
© Tao Hui

Commissioned by Macalline Art Center.
Installation view at the exhibition “The Elephant Escaped”, Macalline Art Center, Beijing, 2022.
Image courtesy of Macalline Art Center.
Photographer: Lin Banye @ AGENT PAY

Single-channel HD video, colour, with sound
12 min 3 sec

Single-channel HD video, colour, with sound
12 min 3 sec

Single-channel HD video, colour, with sound
12 min 3 sec

Archival Pigment Print, mounted on museum board
A set of 6, each 30 × 45 cm (horizontal) or 45 × 30 cm (vertical)

Single channel video installation, color and sound
Video: 12 min 36 sec
Monitor: 22.1 x 110.1 cm

Single channel video installation, color and sound
Video: 12 min 36 sec
Monitor: 22.1 x 110.1 cm

HD video installation (colour, sound), 40 min
Courtesy of the artist, Kyoto Art Center, Rockbund Art Museum, and Luxelakes·A4 Art Museum.
Installation view, 2019
Image: Winnie Yeung @ iMAGE28
Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong

Installation view, ‘New Start: The 3rd Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art — Concept, Form and Daily Life’, Shenzhen UNESCO Gallery, The Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, Shenzhen, China, 2019
Image courtesy of Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art

Installation view, ‘New Start: The 3rd Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art — Concept, Form and Daily Life’, Shenzhen UNESCO Gallery, The Sea World Culture and Arts Centre, Shenzhen, China, 2019
Image courtesy of Shenzhen Biennale of Contemporary Art

Installation view, ‘Lunar Phases’, UCCA Lab, Beijing, China, 2019
Image courtesy of Begins Studio

Installation view, ‘Long March Project: The Deficit Faction’, 2019
Photo by ARTEXB
Image courtesy of Long March Project

Installation view, ‘Long March Project: The Deficit Faction’, 2019
Photo by ARTEXB
Image courtesy of Long March Project

Single channel HD video, color, sound
14 min 12 sec
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

Single channel HD video, color, sound
14 min 12 sec
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

LED screens, trolley
Dimensions variable
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

Hologram, glass
25 x 15 cm
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

Hologram, glass
25 x 15 cm
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

Video installation, sound, wood, LED screen, speaker
124 x 286 x 130 cm
Installation view, ‘Rhythm and Senses’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2019

2018
Double channel HD video, colour, sound
23 min 44 sec

2018
Double channel HD video, colour, sound
23 min 44 sec

‘Film Screening II’ at Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, 2018

2018
Digital fan projection and sound
10 min 36 sec

2018
Digital output

2018
Digital output

2017
HD video installation, colour, sound
40 mins

‘Hugo Boss Asia Art: Award for Emerging Asian Artists’ at Rockbund Art Museum, 2017
Courtesy Kyoto Art Center, A4 Museum, RAM

2016
Screenshot, HD video, colour, sound
14 min 27 sec

2015
Screenshot, HD video, colour, sound
19 min 32 sec

2015
Screenshot, single channel HD video, colour, sound
11 min 48 sec

2014
Single channel HD video, colour, sound
4 min 14 sec

2014
Still, inkjet print; single channel HD video, colour, sound
16 min 43 sec

2013
Single channel video, colour, sound
3 min 45 sec
-Dimensions-Variable,2010,04.jpg)
2010
Single channel video, colour, sound
30 min 1 sec
-Dimensions-Variable,2010,02.jpg)
2010
Single channel video, colour, sound
30 min 1 sec