Contaminated, 2020

Tristan Wu  

Tristan Wu was born in 1989 in Kaohsiung (Taiwan). He was raised in both the UK and Taiwan.

During his school years in Taiwan, he began drawing satirical skits and other short sketches to ridicule the local education system, rebelling against a culture where students as well as teachers were pushed to burn out.

A self-taught artist, Tristan Wu finds his inspiration in his military family environment, marked by the Chinese civil war, army ornaments and iconography, cinema and the back and forth mingling between Europe and Asia.

Replaying the scenes of domination and revolts through fragmented episodes with humour, etched with jubilant rage, Tristan Wu creates a conqueror's world where justice is led by “Hysterical Mitch", his fictional double. Through the role of the emperor, army commander, CEO or simply a rugby player, the hysteria of this perfect anti-hero is a mise en abîme of our contemporary struggles: war, memory, sport, technology and education.

Tristan Wu embeds in his creations an overwhelming energy. True to his double culture, his compositions interweave, in an aesthetic of power, Chinese cultural forms with the imagery of a globalised pop culture.

With his striking works full of vivacity and sincerity, Tristan Wu astonishes us in the current landscape of figurative work.