Meet CA CHOU, the Taiwanese artist and fashion designer whose work becomes a portal into the near future.
CA CHOU, a Taiwanese artist and fashion designer, navigates the complexities of human-technology integration through his captivating NFTs. Curated by platforms like NiftyGateway and SuperRare, his work transcends mere digital assets, becoming portals to a future both alluring and unsettling.They acknowledge the advancements, yet lament the lack of harmony this progress has brought, highlighting humanity's current tendency to prioritize "arming ourselves" with technology for survival. His NFTs employ fierce imagery and metaphors. His use of cars and line style are reminiscent of Italian Futurism.
Taiwan has a rich cultural history and a complex relationship with technology, having experienced rapid modernization in recent decades. Taiwan has a high per capita GDP just behind Japan’s and is a global leader in semiconductor manufacturing. These tiny chips power everything from smartphones and laptops to cars and medical devices. Taiwan has taken a cautious approach to regulating crypto, focusing primarily on anti-money laundering (AML) measures. However, in March 2023, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) announced it would introduce specific legislation to regulate cryptocurrency trading and payments. This is expected to provide more clarity and potentially boost the industry's development. Importantly, The FSC has not yet decided on regulating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) due to their evolving nature and the need for proper classification guidelines.
It is from this backdrop that Taiwanese artist and fashion designer CA CHOU has emerged. His NFTs, which could be called portraits or characters, have the feeling of feminine action heroes of a not-so-distant future. While CA CHOU opts to say little about his work, he calls out the correlation between humans and technology. This mutual relationship or connection between two or more things when expressed in his work is highly relevant in today's world, where technology is increasingly integrated into our lives and bodies.
The bodies themselves hover around idealization between potential exploration and empowered feminism where the figures are merged not with technology but with the technocities they seem inseparable from. Female characters could live within the anime tradition of sexualized innocence, but the delicate animations, and the quality of tracing paper, imply a softer direction from the artist.
The figures often address us, as if taking a selfie or photographs where the camera and therefore viewer are addressed. Both CA CHOU’s work and historic portraits Focus on human expression, aiming to capture human emotion and individuality. The artist uses anime’s tool kit of exaggerated features and expressions to convey a wide range of emotions, similar to how some historical portraits employed symbolism and pose to achieve the same effect.
Although increasingly known as an NFT Artist his street-style clothing brand, Cachou Industry was started in 2016. The style is punk, liberated, casually unusual, and notably made for the physical bodies of his generation's subculture. The brand carries the “God damn, life is not easy” which comes as a humorous understatement in the current regional climate.
When writing about CA CHOU’s work I was invited into worlds he refused to explain in explicit hopes I would interpret his work through their own lens. It is the same invitation he gives his collectors and many fans. By inviting viewers to interpret his work through their own lens, CHOU transcends mere artistry. He becomes a facilitator of dialogue, prompting us to confront the evolving relationship between humans and technology. While he envisions a future of ever-deepening integration, it's a future devoid of judgment, inviting us to consider the possibilities and implications. In essence, CA CHOU is not just creating art; he's sparking conversations about our collective future. Whether it is through his enigmatic NFTs or his rebellious clothing line, he challenges us to acknowledge the complexities of our tech-driven world and embrace its potential for both empowerment and introspection.
