Room drawing (Containing thoughts of Ross Byers and Alan Keane)
Sawdust, cardboard, metal, wood, bike tire, electric toothbrushes
Dimensions variable
2011 (photography by Gabriel Leung)

The Speed of Learning
Handmade book, counter
2012

Site-Specific Miracle
Concrete and smashed mirror
107 cm x 140 cm x 3.5 cm
2013 (Photo by Ying Cui)

Foreign Objects
Plaster tiles, two blockers, two cannons, and the shade
CCTV still from a one hour performance
2013

Cedric Tai

Cedric Tai was born in Detroit in 1985. He graduated from Michigan State University in art education and studio art with a concentration in painting and ceramics. He has won numerous awards including the 2009 Kresge Artist Fellowship awarded by Kresge Arts in Detroit.

Recent exhibitions include Concept Structure Torture Survival Title at New City Space, Glasgow 2011; group show Quantified Self at Gallery Projects in Ann Arbor 2012, Gwenan International, Glasgow 2012. He has an upcoming exhibition following the degree show, Indirectly, Yours in Intermedia Gallery in the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, July 2013.

He is published in Tip Tap Flat: A View of Glasgow in 2012 and 2HB Volume 16, a journal for experimental art writing in 2013. He also is a volunteer for the Third Eye Centre Archives, and GalGael. Tai is represented by Re:View Contemporary in Detroit.

Statement

I recognise the importance of the jester, the fool, in turning our expectations against ourselves. Some works are created to provoke, or at least make us more conscious of the level of participation that is allowed at a given moment.

There is value in re-representing the many ways that indirectness is part of how we make meaning in our lives. People fall into ideal careers they didn’t know existed, fall in love by chance, but we still prioritise a perceived sense of control over embracing the unknown. My work propels me to have new experiences and to enjoy being a part of them.

I balance a prolific studio practice with volunteering in various art-related communities to inform my work. My exhibitions are comprised of gestures that respond to the absurdity within artistic practice and life.

This sometimes means creating overly complicated systematic approaches that result in non-exact, but conceptually simple outcomes.