BABYWORK – Shu Lea Cheng: 18th May
UPDATE : Shu Lea Cheang, APO33’s artiste in résidence 2012 at La Plateforme Intermedia / Fabrique – will by exhibiting the results “baby work” of this residency at the Biennal ZERO1 in San Jose, US and then at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
Opening Wednesday the 18th at 6pm – Plateforme intermédia – La Fabrique
Open from Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm to 6pm
The Locker Baby project recalls Ryu Murakami’s noted novel Coin Locker Babies (1980) in which twin boys were abandoned at birth in one square foot coin locker metal box at Tokyo’s subway station. The boys grew up haunted with the sound of human heart beats, those of their birth mother’s. Coin lockers are Japan’s train station landmark and much utilized by shoppers and travelers. In post-war japan, unwanted babies (often interracial) by unwed mothers were dropped off in coin-lockers. Fear of terrorists’ explosive deposit, coin lockers have ceased to exist at public space in most metropolitan cities. In 1995, when Tokyo Doomsday was called for by cult Aum Shinrikyo, the coin lockers were sealed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force for a day. The historical association and references derived from coin lockers inspire the Locker Baby project.
The Locker Baby project proposes a fictional scenario set in year 2030. The transnational DPT (DollyPolly Transgency) advances clone babies as an industry. Genes extracted from deep sea pearls harvested off Okinawa Island are identified as best breed. Coin lockers situated in busy Tokyo train stations are located for underworld test tube fertilization. Ticking seconds to oblivion in darkness, the lockers announce the birth of the Clone Generation. Serving themselves in the intelligent industry, the locker babies are entrusted to negotiate human “memory” and “emotions”. The Locker Baby holds the key to unlock the networked inter-sphere of ME-motion (Memory-Emotion), a playfield of sonic
imagery triggered only by human interaction.
SHU LEAN CHEANG
Shu Lea Cheang (born in Taiwan in 1954) is a multi-media artist who works in the fields of net-based installation,social interface and film production.
Over the past decade, she has emerged as a prominent figure in new media art. Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies. Her work is unique in allowing viewer interaction. She is most noted for her individual approach in the realm of art and technology, creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods.[1]
Cheang’s art ranges in mediums such as film, video, net-based installation, and interface, which explore “…ethnic stereotyping, the nature and excesses of popular media, institutional – and especially governmental – power, race relations, and sexual politics.” (“Shu Lea Cheang”) Most recently, she has moved to 35mm feature filmmaking.
She has been a member of the Paper Tiger Television collective since 1981. Though originally based in New York, Cheang is currently living and working in Paris, France.
En Collaboration avec Inspace (GB) et Zero1 festival (USA)
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