Participatory Formats: Art by Mizzonk
Mizzonk is a Vancouver-based art studio. The studio, founded by Wan-Yi Lin and Roger Chen, focuses on creating installation art, often in public and participatory formats, with a minimalist aesthetic edge.
Chingtao 21 billboard (installation view)
I really enjoy the way that Mizzonk’s artists explore the nature of, and tension between, public and private art. In one recent project, Chingtao 21 billboard art, the team created a public billboard installation at the entrance to Roger Chen’s townhouse complex in Pingtung, Taiwan, as a response to the removal of several buildings that had, up until then, provided the home with additional privacy.
The nature of the billboard as a space for public announcement and advertising is subverted by the artist’s creation of an image that doesn’t necessarily have anything to sell. In keeping with the studio’s favored aesthetic of neutral, sometimes-earthy colors and poetic titling, the billboard seeks a very different type of attention.
