Chen-Yu Chen
Chen-Yu Chen
Chen-Yu Chen now lives and works in Taipei. His works examine the landscapes under the construction of digital industrialization and globalization of Capital, and the inter-activities between humans, commodities, and images. Working with moving images, objects, and installations, his practice often juxtaposes various media and examines how beliefs, desires, and anxieties are materially distributed in social production. His works, on the one hand, depict the phenomena created by re/production, consumption, and extraction, on the other hand, they explore the interpenetrative relationship and boundaries between humans, objects, and the environment.
<p class="p1"Chen-Yu Chen has participated in residency programs at Jan van Eyck Academie, the European Ceramic Work Centre, the Watermill Center in New York, and Geumcheon Art Space in Seoul. His works were exhibited in the Taipei Arts Award, Hong Kong Art Center, Ashkal Alwan Beirut, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Kasseler Dokfest, Denver Film Festival, and Lisbon International Film Festival.Artworks
No body makes its own bodies
2024
gesso, clay, fabrics, resin, wax, metal
How do we imagine the body—our own, others’, the body as an object, or the gendered body? Social media images blend the material of identity politics, making the understanding of the body a sticky, dynamic interplay of ideologies. The transformation of the body is heated by the mediated process of dopamine transmission, melting like sugar—sweet and sticky, as promised. With a flick of a finger or two, we can gather and craft a magnificent cotton candy in any form. Just like the animal-shaped clouds projected by our imagination, they are a mix of sweet granules and saliva-coated fantasies.
The narrative of fleeting excitement spills over the screens, pouring out various potential fluids/solutions, submerging everything around. Different bodies become wetland sculptures of imagined forms, testing their stickiness—how thick and ornate they can be layered, or how quickly they will dissolve.