Chinese Name: 優席夫·卡照
Born: 1968
Birthplace: Hualien County (Eastern Taiwan)
Did You Know That…?
In 2022, Yosifu Kacaw and British anthropologist Julian Davison won Best Host at the 57th Golden Bell Awards for National Geographic’s docuseries “Secrets of the Ocean Tribes (南島起源)” under the category of the Natural Sciences and Humanities Documentary Program.
Yosifu Kacaw was born in the Matalim village (馬太林部落) in Yuli Township (玉里鎮), Hualien County. At the age of 18, he was a member of the Amis singer group “Black Pearl.” However, Yosifu was forced to stop his singing career due to a contract dispute between his management company and his record label. In 2002, he went to Edinburgh, the UK, by himself, where he worked as a bartender, deliveryman, and painter, doing odd jobs to make a living. In his spare time, Yosifu began to develop an interest in drawing and painting. By chance, his landlord saw his artwork and used it to decorate the living room. Unexpectedly, his painting attracted the attention of the curator of the Edinburgh Art Festival, who later invited Yosifu to attend the art event. He sold his first-ever art piece “Kiss You Every Day” for £70 at the festival.
In most of his artworks, Yosifu makes good use of bright and vivid colors to express the joy and vitality of Taiwan’s indigenous people. He also incorporated a sense of irony into some of his creations, demonstrating the unspeakable depression through painting. Yosifu once said that he used the painting as a weapon of resistance for the ethnic minority. In 2010, his painting “Can’t Speak” was selected as one of the top ten Asian artworks by the University of the Arts of London, portraying a woman wearing traditional Amis attire and headdress with her right index finger pressed against her mouth in a gesture meaning “remain silent.” The artwork tells a wounded history when indigenous people were forbidden to speak their mother tongue. In 2018, Yosifu’s art pieces appeared on the exteriors of the subway car in Taiwan and New York, captivating riders with the artist’s unique aesthetics.