Interview with Teng Yung Han


spray-of-love

Taiwanese artist Teng Yung Han submitted her work to us earlier this year with a brief “HELLO AND THANKS,” just like that, all in caps, followed by a collection of wild collages, cartoons and pornography. Many of the pieces immediately impressed me – a face superimposed onto a spread vagina, a three-headed dog burning in flames, a woman riding a spritzing penis. I appreciated Teng’s submission approach, and her work is similarly irreverent and amusing. Scanning and reprinting photos of herself from elementary school, or images stolen from the trash, Teng is an expert in collage. Her mysterious introduction prompted a proper investigation on my part, and we spent the last few months getting to know each other via email. I loved her new zine Sorrowful Spy so much that we decided to collaborate on a t-shirt together using her piece entitled Spray of Love. Teng says her favourite thing to draw is penis, which makes her my soulmate artist. Read some of our conversations below, and check out scans from her new zine! -CM

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What does Sorrowful Spy mean to you? 

My zine is called Sorrowful Spy since I really like the song “Kanashimi no Spy (A Sad Spy)” by Japanese singer Asami Kobayashi from the ’80s. The picture is me holding a toy gun as an “imaginary spy.” It’s my elementary school graduation photo, I have no idea why I chose to hold a toy gun and pose like an idiot back then. Anyway, it looks hilarious now, so I make it to my zine cover as some kind of a joke and it turn out great. Although it doesn’t seem sorrowful at all, ha.

Is there a theme in your work?

I don’t think I set a specific theme in my works, but they usually look kitsch (I prefer a Japanese term, Heta-Uma, means that something is unskillful, got a bad taste but also skillful and tasty at the same time) and all seems to be ridicule at…nothing. They don’t even have a particular target to shoot at. Just make you itch but don’t know why.

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 Did you study art in school?

 Yes, I’m a Fine Arts student.

Your work is very pornographic, can you talk a bit about that?

I like to use sexual elements in my work, it produce a quick and intense contradiction and is fun. But the real reason is just because I like it. If you ask me what I like to draw the most, I will say “penis.”

Are these computer generated drawings? 

Yes, I usually draw them on paper, and scan into computer for colouring, but since I don’t really like the digital-ness, I will print it out and scan it back into the computer again to get the right texture I want and sometimes I’ll even get some unexpected results. 

See our t-shirt collaboration with Teng Yung Han HERE