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ASIA SOCIETY PRESENTS LEADING TAIWANESE ARTIST CHEN CHIEH-JEN'S COMPLETE VIDEO WORKS
CONDENSATION: FIVE VIDEO WORKS BY CHEN CHIEH-JEN
June 19 through August 5, 2007
Gallery Walkthrough with Artist for Media:
Monday, June 18, 5:30 – 6:00 pm, followed by VIP reception;
Artist available for interview from June 12 through June 22.
Watch excerpts from Chen Chieh-jen's videos
Chen Chieh-jen: Factory, 2003
(Super 16mm transferred to DVD, single-channel
video, color, silent;
30 minutes 50 seconds, loop; Courtesy of the artist.)
Condensation: Five Video Works by Chen Chieh-jen is the
first major solo exhibition of leading Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen
in the United States. Born in 1960 and based in Taipei, Chen has gained
both local and international acclaim for his important works in
photography, installation, performance and video art—his medium of
choice since 2002. "Condensation introduces museum audiences
to the depth of Chen's video works which are compelling in their sense
of urgency towards issues of politics, humanism, and social welfare,"
said Melissa Chiu, Museum Director, Asia Society.
Chen's near silent works visually condense a range of human emotions
such as pain and isolation to examine the social, political, and
historical burdens of marginalized people and communities in Taiwan and
beyond. He presented his first video work Lingchi - Echoes of a Historical Photograph
at the 2002 Taipei Biennial. In this work, the artist reinterprets
Chinese history by analyzing an early twentieth-century documentary
photograph of a criminal execution in pre-modern China, taken by a
French soldier and made famous by the French thinker Georges Bataille.
In the video works Factory, Bade Area, and On Going, the artist focuses his lens on forgotten locations and ostracized populations.
His most recent work, The Route, was
commissioned by Tate Gallery, Liverpool for the 2006 Liverpool
Biennial. In this, Chen creates a link between Taiwan and the rest of
the world by secretly restaging, with casts of actual Taiwanese
laborers, union protests and demonstrations that happened in ports
across the world, but not in Taiwan. His powerful visual narratives are
woven out of images of both past and present-day Taiwan, but they also
transcend cultural boundaries and carry universal resonance.
Chen Chieh-jen: Lingchi - Echoes of a Historical Photograph, 2002
(Super 16mm film transferred to DVD, black and white, three channel, sound;
21 minutes 4 seconds; photograph courtesy of the artist.)
The artist comments: "Taiwan has become a ‘fast-forgetting' consumer
society that has abandoned its right to 'self-narration' and this has
spurred me to resist the tendency to forget. One of my methods of
resistance is to view each film I make as an act of connection, linking
together the history of people who have been excluded from the dominant
discourse, the real-life situations of areas that are being ignored,
and ‘others' who are being isolated. In this way, I resist the state of
amnesia in consumer society."
All of Chen's video works are produced and shot on high quality 16
or 35 millimeter film, which is then converted onto DVD format and
looped for museum presentation.
Chen's video works are also produced without spoken lines,
voice-overs or music; in his view, this is a reflection of the
condition of marginal areas that have been silenced. The exception is
in Lingchi, where tiny sounds may be heard
on and off for a few seconds at a time. These sounds are recordings of
the electromagnetic waves emitted by Chen's own skin, in this way, the
artist physically inserts himself into the work. "Chen's video works
are unique in so many ways. For example, Chen looks intently into the
morphological differences and similarities between photography, video,
and film," said Miwako Tezuka, curator of the exhibition. "His slowly
panning video images, as sleek and grand as film, move out and away,
slowly, from the medium of photography for which he is also well known."
Video works presented in the exhibition include:
- Lingchi—Echoes of a Historical Photograph, 2002 (duration: 22 mins / 34 secs)
Excerpt
- Factory, 2003 (duration: 30 mins / 50 secs)
Excerpt
- Bade Area, 2005 (duration: 30 mins)
Excerpt
- On Going, 2006 (duration: 30 mins)
Excerpt
- The Route, 2006 (duration: 14 mins / 50 secs)
Excerpt
(Please note that all of the above excerpts are silent, except for Lingchi, which features sound.)
Condensation is organized by the Asia Society and curated
by Miwako Tezuka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art at the Asia
Society. For video clips of Chen Chieh-jen's video works, visit www.AsiaSociety.org.
Made possible with support from the Council for Cultural Affairs,
Taiwan and Taipei Cultural Center, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office,
New York. Additional support provided by the Asia Society Contemporary
Art Council, the Sheryl and Charles R. Kaye Endowment for Contemporary
Art Exhibitions, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
About the Artist
Chen Chieh-jen has established himself on the international stage,
having shown his work at the Bienal de São Paulo (1998), Venice
Biennale (1999), Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris (2001), and
Taipei Biennial (2002), among others. During the 1980s and early 1990s,
before and after martial law was lifted in Taiwan, he was active in
performance art. In 2000 he was awarded the Special Prize at the
Gwangju Biennale in Korea.
About the Asia Society
Asia Society is the leading global organization working to strengthen
relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders, and
institutions of Asia and the United States. We seek to enhance
dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across
the fields of policy, business, education, arts, and culture. Founded
in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller 3rd, Asia Society is a nonprofit
educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los
Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Shanghai,
and Washington, DC.
One of the first American museums to establish a contemporary Asian
art program in the early 1990s, the Asia Society Museum presents
groundbreaking exhibitions and artworks previously unseen in the United
States. Through these exhibitions and related public programs, the
Society provides a forum for the issues and viewpoints reflected in the
work of cutting-edge Asian and Asian American artists. Their views do
not necessarily reflect those of Asia Society, which is a nonpartisan
institution.
Asia Society and Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street), New York City
The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm,
Friday from 11:00 am to 9:00 pm. Closed Monday. General admission is
$10, seniors $7, students $5 and free for members and persons under 16.
Free admission Fridays, 6:00 to 9:00 pm.
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Contact: Jennifer Suh at (212) 327-9271
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