Taxidermy crows in Taiwanese artist’s show symbolise competitive nature of artworld
One of four kinetic taxidermy crows with computer circuits exposed in their stomachs created by London-based Taiwanese artist Ting-Tong Chang for his first solo exhibition in London which continues at Asia House until 2 September
Taxidermy crows in Taiwanese artist’s show symbolise competitive nature of artworld
24 August 2016
Four kinetic stuffed crows, video installations and quirky drawings make up an unusual and fascinating exhibition which explores the interrelationship between man, nature and machines, as well as between consumption, industrial production, and ecological coexistence.
The ground-breaking series of installations by Taiwanese artist Ting-Tong Chang, titled P’eng’s Journey to the Southern Darkness, which is currently on display at Asia House, also questions the Darwinian nature of the contemporary art world.
Pamela Kember, Head of Arts and Learning at Asia House, describes P’eng’s Journey to the Southern Darkness, Chang’s first London solo exhibition, as “thought-provoking, quirky, engaging and light-hearted.”
Ting-Tong Chang chats to a guest at the preview of his exhibition at Asia House
33-year-old Ting-Tong Chang, who lives in London, said: “It’s about how artists can reflect the contemporary way of life – the interrelationship between ecology, consumers and an industrial society.”
Four stuffed dead crows are featured on elevated plinths in the Asia House Gallery with computer circuits in their stomachs exposed.
‘I have somehow brought the crows back to life’
“I have somehow brought the crows back to life using technology,” explains Ting-Tong Chang. “This is the first part of my solo show in London. The second part will take place in October. I bought the dead crows off eBay so they were already dead. I didn’t kill them. I have put a physical computer from a 3D printer inside each of them,” he says.
Crows and the number four symbolise death in traditional Chinese culture.
Ting-Tong Chang uses the birds to question the competitive and ‘Darwinian’ nature of art world that he and other contemporary artists operate in in which only the ‘fittest survive.’
Each bird is timed to speak out loud all the rejection letters the artist has received from open calls and prizes he has applied to.
“They symbolise the death of opportunities for artists,” Ting-Tong Chang explains.
There are also three video installations in the Asia House Gallery. One shows a durational performance Chang undertook in collaboration with artist Hsien-Yu Cheng. Titled Second Life it shows the artist sat in a chair having blood drawn from his arms to feed mosquitoes.
The performance shows the four stages of life and metamorphosis of 8,000 Asian tiger mosquitoes over 20 days, depicting how the females suck blood, lay eggs which hatch into larvae and then become pupae and finally adult flying mosquitoes. The video claims that global warming and climate change are causing more mosquitoes to breed.
In ‘Second Life’ Ting-Tong Chang has blood drawn from his arms to feed mosquitoes
‘Second Life’ shows the four stages of life of mosquitoes
Another video installation at the exhibition in the Asia House Gallery titled Spodoptera Litura is of a three-day durational performance in which Chang resided with hundreds of caterpillars and wild cabbage plants inside a greenhouse. The video shows him watering and nourishing the plants with his own urine and then boiling and grilling the caterpillars for food thus demonstrating how the food chain works.
A voice in the video claims that insects are as nutritious as meat, with a higher protein conversion rate than beef. It states eating insects is less harmful to the environment than beef consumption, which is the cause of methane emissions. Eating insects could even help solve global food shortages, the voiceover states. Chang drew his feelings and impressions while living inside the greenhouse. These c are displayed on the walls of the Asia House Gallery.
The third video installation, titled Whence do you know the happiness of fish?, shows Chang camping for 14 days in a tent next to an indoor fish farm with an artificial ecosystem. In the video a pool of water is packed with sturgeons. Chang’s only food is the sturgeons if he can catch them with a fishing rod, kill them and cook them. The drawings he did during this period are also on display.
This is one of the drawings Ting-Tong Chang did whilst living in an indoor fish farm for 14 days
Another comical drawing by Ting-Tong Chang that he drew while camping next to a pool of sturgeons
‘Whence do you know the Happiness of Fish’, the title of Chang’s durational performance,’ is inspired by a story by Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi
The title of the exhibition derives form Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi’s text Free and Easy Wandering, in which a fish in the North Ocean turns into a giant bird and sets to tavel the South Ocean, whilst a cicada and a dove ridicule him for attempting this.
It will continue at Asia House until 2 September and is supported by the Ministry of Culture Republic of China (Taiwan).
naomi.canton@asiahouse.co.uk
Entry to the exhibition is free. It is open Tuesday to Friday 10.00 to 18.00 until 2 September. For more information click here.
A screening of the documentary Mechanical Marvels: Clockwork Dreams (2013) will take place at Asia House on 31 August from 18.45 to 20.00. One of Ting-Tong Chang’s inspirations, this documentary presented by Professor Simon Schaffer, charts the amazing and untold story of automata – beginning with extraordinary clockwork machines designed hundreds of years ago to mimic and recreate life. Free, but booking essential. For more information click here.
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