Father's Video Tapes __Avoid A Void plays on the oxymoron of the subtitle – “avoid a void,” to both satirize and critique a paradoxical reality in contemporary neo-liberalism and pluralistic cultural politics, in which the tenet of “everything is open for discussion” conspires with practice of “avoiding certain topics.” When plural queer performative acts are reduced to a certain homosexual identity, which is subsequently contained by Taiwanese society and cultural memory, being assimilated and narrowly pigeonholed by its connection to the state, marriage and sex, whereas the multiplicity of history and performance, on the other hand, falls into the restraint of avoidance. Father's Video Tapes __Avoid A Void creates a visual undercurrent linking itself with its precedent, Father’s Video Tapes. In the meantime, it indicates a story yet to be revealed by history, and calls attention to the performative politics regarding “what is open for discussion” and “what is being avoided,” together with all possible future actions. (Commentator/WANG Chun-Yen)

Father’s Video Tapes __ Avoid A Void by YANG Teng-Chi (Manbo Key) is a project that has been developed for more than a decade. In the 90s, he discovered his father’s selfie video tapes and inevitably found out about his father’s sexual orientation, which led to his new understanding of the role of “father”—whether what it means to individuals or how it is defined by society. Avoid A Void, is an extension to Father's Video Tape. This work is presented as an installation and image work created with multimedia. Queer identity is applied to participate and intervene with Taipei’s contemporary underground life, enabling encounters with different gender identities, drag queens, transgender individuals, and non-binary queers. The work documents and reassembles all identities that differ from mainstream values and forms a dialogue between family life and the multifaceted queer scene of the Taipei underground through image installations. This work is a comparative and cross-generational portrayal of the explorations and issues facing the artist, the queer subjects of his works, and his father.

YANG Teng-Chi ( Manbo Key ) is a Taiwanese photographer and image artist based in Taipei. Manbo’s creative process involves the intimate relationship between the photographer and the object, as well as observations of objects and scenes of daily life. The figures and spaces captured by Manbo's lenses are direct metaphors for the cool, distant perspective of bystanders. The artist participates in visual projects to explore different image presentation methods, and the project works have focused on the direction of gender and identity. The 2019 exhibition Father's Video Tape at Taipei Fine Arts Museum was awarded the grand prize at the 2019 Taipei Art Awards.