Parklife
Yuan Goang-Ming, Heidi Voet, Tao Hui, James T. Hong, Yin-Ju Chen, Jawshing Arthur Liou, Paul Gong, Yu Cheng-Ta, Yao Jui-Chung, Wu Tien-Chang, Hung Tung-Lu, Wang Jun-Jieh, Tsui Kuang-Yu, Peng Hung-Chih, Chang Chao-Tang, Bruce Yonemoto
October 20 – November 30, 2017
Exhibition Views
Chi-Wen Gallery is delighted to announce the opening of our new Group Show “Parklife” to coincide with the Grand Opening of our new space in Tianmu on 20th – 21st October. The exhibition continues until November 30th.
Tao Hui 陶輝, The Dusk of Teheran, 2014
In Iran, many rights of women are suppressed under the name of protecting women. Women are always in passive position in the frame of marriage law. Entertainment is forbidden for women and female singers are not allowed to give open performance. Hong Kong is a traditional place advocating for freedom and women in Hong Kong may freely pursue for their own love, dream and lifestyle. Tao chose to have an Iranian girl, who worked for a theater, reproduce a dialogue between the deceased Hong Kong female star Anita Mui and her fans in private car. The dialogue shows the free pursuit of Anita Mui for love and marriage. The artist is attempting to seek for the differences and common points presented by people from different nations and areas in the same story frame, and also hope to show the attitude of Iranian women toward life and emotion through such a kind of performance and review the free space for people under the governance of totalitarianism.
Yin-Ju Chen 陳瀅如, Notes on Psychedelics 致幻記, 2015
Notes on Psychedelics (2015) is a survey of drugs, consciousness, and the soul. It investigates the motivations behind the consumption of psychedelic drugs and focuses on the substance called “DMT” (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine), which is biologically and naturally released by the pineal gland or “the third eye” within the brain.
Encompassing philosophy, religion, medical science, art, and cults, my practice daringly and rigorously assumes that the universe has its own consciousness, and as human beings we all seek our own paths that seem ostensibly different, but eventually return to the universe.
Jawshing Arthur Liou 劉肇興, Sonnet 27, 2014
Sonnet 27 is inspired by the scientific research regarding the brain’s ability to produce the chemicals that bind to the same receptors as does marijuana. These receptors are involved in certain crucial cognitive functions, including our ability to learn, control emotions, and mitigate traumatic memories. The video installation alludes to the pre-historical contact between human and marijuana. Aside from the simulated cave painting and a Neolithic child, the shifting scenery between brain cells and dramatic landscape creates impressions of distant memories and altered streams of consciousness. In addition, Sonnet 27 is a result of a cross-sectorial collaboration. The stereo sound effect is composed by the musician Melody Eötvös, and the microscopic neuron images are captured by scientists Dr. Alex Straiker and Jim Powers.
Paul Gong 宮保睿, Human Hyena 人類鬃狗, 2014
In this project, the artist imagines transhumanists, DIYBIO enthusiasts and makers coming together to form a group known as “Human Hyenas”, who want to tackle the increasingly serious problem of food wastage.
Inspired by the hyena species, they use synthetic biology to create new bacterias, and make use of three new tools to modify their digestive system to be like that of the hyena – with its different sense of smell and taste.
The “Human Hyenas” are able to consume and digest rotten food like the scavenger hyena. The “Human Hyena” raises the question of whether humans can modify their body using synthetic biology in order to solve bigger issues.
Heidi Voet, You believe in visions and prayers But you don’t believe in what’s really there You’re a young man on a dance floor A young man in a young man’s world Get on the dance floor Get on the dance floor Get on the dance floor Get on the dance floor Get on the dance floor (1777-1795), 2016
“The plastic bag is a vessel for an ever-changing content” – Heidi Voet
Laboriously woven from thousands of plastic carrier bags, each flag is drawn from countries that declared independence but no longer exist. Within the life span of a disposable plastic bag hundreds of nation states have formed and collapsed, the geopolitical map changed and reconfigured. In a world where the history of war and strife is predicated on nationalism, the colorful flags convey the transient and impermanent nature of so-called national identity. (American flag with fewer states during the American revolution.)
Press & Review
Parklife: questioning the personal and the political in video art at Chi-Wen Gallery
Art Radar, November 8, 2017
