[spectre] grey) (area . Shu Lea Cheang: Is Resistance Futile . artist tlk

[Darko Fritz]

grey) (area . space for contemporary and media art . Korčula



Shu Lea Cheang: Is Resistance Futile - on politics of green spaces, politics of red space

Curator: Darko Fritz

Friday, 28th August, 21 h, open-air cinema, Korčula (Ljetno kino)


Multimedia artist and filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang's work aims at re-envisioning genders, genres, and operating structures. This artist talk is comprising a multimedia presentation in which Cheang is going to present two main pillars of her work: one is a relation between sexuality and repression in technological context of the contemporary world, and the other is about the politics of green spaces with the emphasis on control and distribution of the seeds.
As a net art pioneer, her artwork Brandon (1998-1999) was the first web art piece commissioned by New York Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The one-year narrative project explored the issues of gender fusion and techno-body in both public and cyber space. The site got its name after Brandon Teena, a trans man who was raped and murdered in 1993 after his biological sex had been revealed.
At the Venice Biennale 2019 Cheang represented her native country Taiwan with the interactive installation 3 x 3 x 6. Cheang created a new work inspired by the history of the exhibition venue, Palazzo delle Prigioni, which first served as a prison in the sixteenth century. The work’s title refers to today’s standardized architecture of industrial imprisonment: a 3 x 3 square-meter cell constantly monitored by 6 cameras. 3 x 3 x 6 thus speaks to the realities of the prison, constructed both physically and by the presence of digital surveillance mechanisms. The exhibition worked with ten historical and contemporary case studies of individuals who had been outcast or incarcerated due to reasons of gender variance, sexual preference, or racial differences. The exhibition concept examined how visual and legal hegemonies are constructed over time and how these hegemonies rationalize sex, gender, and race as a result. Through its presentation, 3 x 3 x 6 further explored the alternative forms of non-physical yet increasingly omnipresent imprisonment in this new digital age, where surveillance apparatus and technologies are becoming inescapable.
Cheang has been working with artists/farmers communities since the 1980s. She has also created large installations and performances while engaged in network building and seeds/compost/bio-diversity related projects. She is a co-founder of the CycleX, which designates its 23 acres as an open space with a focus on bio-diversifying farming practices, mycology, permaculture, as well as a hub for in-person or virtual exchange of information and techniques for land stewardship, culture and art. CycleX farmland has been a gathering node for farmers and artists since 1997. They solicited season-based residency projects based on the theme FUTURE SEEDS. The initiative derived from farming exchange and research in bio-electronic media art, further connecting code and data processing with algorithms of seeding and growth. Through sensing, cultivating and communicating with soil, fields, seeds, plants, and animals via electronic means and devices, FUTURE SEEDS sought systematic investigation into current bio-media work. The residency promoted sustainable living/working environment for artists who engaged in farming activities along with their media projects.

More info: http://sivazona.hr/events/shu-lea-cheang-umjetnicko-predavanje

Other programs by grey) (area:
Korčula: 2020|5050 by Dina Karadžić and Vedran Gligo: http://sivazona.hr/events/20205050
Korčula: Work by Armina Pilav: http://sivazona.hr/events/armina-pilav-intervencija-u-javnom-prostoru
internet: Tautologies by Ilija Šoškić: http://sivazona.hr/events/tautologije-video