Shu Lea Cheang

Shu Lea Cheang ( Chinese : 鄭淑麗; Pinyin : Zhèng Shúlì; born April 13, 1954 in Taiwan ) is a multimedia artist who works in the fields of network-based installations, social interfaces and film production. Cheang received a bachelor's degree in history from National Taiwan University in 1976 and a master's degree in film studies from New York University in 1979 .

Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists working on multidisciplinary topics. With her multimedia approach at the interface between film, video, internet-based installation, software interaction and permanent performance, she is considered a pioneer in internet-based art. Your work is often interactive. She is known for her individual approach to art and technology, in which she creatively blends social issues with artistic methods. Cheang has also written and directed the feature films IKU and Fluidø.

Since 1981 she has been a member of the television collective Paper Tiger Television, which broadcasts on open channels and wants to draw attention to the influence of the mass media with their work. Cheang currently lives and works in Paris, France.

Life

Cheang was born in 1954, at a time when the island of Taiwan was under martial law. Cheang moved from Taiwan to New York in the 1980s .

After 20 years in New York, she led a self-imposed lifestyle as a digital nomad for a decade that, as she said, "freed me from the monthly fixed payments for rent, electricity and phone bills." She worked in Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Switzerland and finally moved to Paris in 2007.

Important works

Chang has been present with video and multimedia installations as well as internet-based installations in museums and at art and film festivals since the 1990s. Some important of their works are described below:

Color Schemes is a three-channel interactive video installation exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1990. The video features people of different races and reveals the complex attitudes towards ethnic stereotypes that are embedded in American culture.

In 1994, Cheang directed the film Fresh Kill . The title refers to a landfill in Staten Island. The film "envisions a post-apocalyptic landscape littered with electronic waste and suffering from the toxic effects of mass marketing in a high-tech commodity culture".

Bowling Alley , on behalf of the Walker Art Center and funded by AT&T New Art / New Visions, was exhibited in 1995. The installation connected Walker's Gallery 7, the town's municipal bowling alley (Bryant-Lake Bowl) and the World Wide Web. The bowling alley blended real life with cyberspace to illustrate the similarities and differences in communication between people face to face and over the internet. The bowling alley was Cheang's first cybernetic installation. Cheang collaborated with other Minneapolis-based artists to present a work that challenges the idea of the personal and public, popular art and the visual arts, by intertwining these opposites.

Another major web-based project that Cheang started was Brandon (1998-99). The year-long narrative project examined the topics of gender, gender boundaries and sexuality in public space as well as in cyberspace. The site got its name from Brandon Teena , a trans man who was raped and murdered in 1993 after his biological gender was revealed. Brandon was the first web-based artwork commissioned by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum . Over time, as web browsers evolved, Brandon could no longer display correctly. In 2017, the work of art was digitally restored and made public again in a joint initiative of the Conservation Department of the Guggenheim and the Department of Computer Science at New York University . Brandon was also featured in Rhizome's net art anthology, an online exhibition of a hundred major net art works. Brandon is currently available at brandon.guggenheim.org.

In 2000, Cheang directed the feature film IKU , a pornographic film that she claimed was inspired by Blade Runner . IKU was presented at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an international fantasy film award.

Cheang's Locker Baby Project (2001–2012) is a playing field of sound images that are only triggered by human interaction. Your baby series project proposes a fictional scenario set in 2030. The transnational DPT (DollyPolly Transgency) is driving the clone babies forward as a smart industry.

Baby Play (2001), the first part uses a large table football field. Opposite rows of 22 ball players are being replaced by cloned human-sized babies. The tracking of the ball movement calls up ME data (memory + emotion = memory + emotion; texts and sound) that are stored.
Baby Love (2005), the second part consists of 6 large-format teacups and 6 cloned babies. Each teacup is a self-propelled mobile unit with spinning wheels that allow for directional maneuvers and speed variations. Each baby is an installed Mac mini motor with WiFi, which is connected to the network depot for shuffles and remixes of popular love songs.
Baby Work (2012), the third part, encourages the audience visiting the gallery to collect and rearrange scattered keys and to compose words into a collective sonic expression. Active participants are the clone babies who are entrusted with the storage and retrieval of ME data.

In 2017, Cheant wrote and directed the science fiction film Fluidø , set in 2060. Fluidø is a dystopian science fiction film "which is about the power of body fluids and how they are extracted".

Shu Lea Chang represented Taiwan in 2019 at the 58th Venice Biennale with the exhibition 3x3x6 , which deals with surveillance, artificial intelligence, violations of (sexual) morals.

Web links

Shu Lea Chang in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Shu Lea Chang on Vimeo
Shu Lea Chang's website
Brandon

Individual evidence

↑ Shu Lea Cheang Papers (MSS 381) - Asian / Pacific / American Institute at NYU. Retrieved February 4, 2020 (American English).
↑ FLUIDØ: VIRUS, SEX, HACK, DRUG & CONSPIRACY. Retrieved February 4, 2020 .
↑ Shu Lea Cheang | filmportal.de. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .
↑ Shu Lea Cheang | filmportal.de. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .
↑ Color Schemes | Video data bank. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
↑ Fresh Kill. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .
↑ Fresh Kill | Video data bank. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
↑ Fresh Kill. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
↑ Media Art Net: Media Art Net | Cheang, Shu Lea: BRANDON. February 21, 2020, accessed February 21, 2020 .
↑ Brandon. In: Guggenheim. January 1, 1998, accessed February 21, 2020 (American English).
↑ NET ART ANTHOLOGY: Brandon. October 27, 2016, accessed March 10, 2020 .
↑ IKU Retrieved February 21, 2020 .
↑ Fluidø. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .
↑ Shu Lea Cheang. Taiwan at the 58th Venice Biennale 2019. Accessed February 21, 2020 .
↑ 3x3x6. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .

personal data
SURNAME	Cheang, Shu Lea
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	鄭淑麗 (Chinese); Zhèng Shúlì (Pinyin)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Taiwanese multimedia artist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 13, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH	Taiwan

[1] Shu Lea Cheang Papers (MSS 381) - Asian / Pacific / American Institute at NYU. Retrieved February 4, 2020 (American English).

[2] FLUIDØ: VIRUS, SEX, HACK, DRUG & CONSPIRACY. Retrieved February 4, 2020 .

[3] Shu Lea Cheang | filmportal.de. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .

[4] Shu Lea Cheang | filmportal.de. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .

[5] Color Schemes | Video data bank. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .

[6] Fresh Kill. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .

[7] Fresh Kill | Video data bank. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .

[8] Fresh Kill. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .

[9] Media Art Net: Media Art Net | Cheang, Shu Lea: BRANDON. February 21, 2020, accessed February 21, 2020 .

[10] Brandon. In: Guggenheim. January 1, 1998, accessed February 21, 2020 (American English).

[11] NET ART ANTHOLOGY: Brandon. October 27, 2016, accessed March 10, 2020 .

[12] IKU Retrieved February 21, 2020 .

[13] Fluidø. Retrieved March 10, 2020 .

[14] Shu Lea Cheang. Taiwan at the 58th Venice Biennale 2019. Accessed February 21, 2020 .

[15] 3x3x6. Retrieved February 21, 2020 .