Shu Lea Cheang
G for GENOM. I hear the blood running
12. 8. – 2. 9. 23
In an era of post-net-crash, GENOM Co. takes the human body hostage to initiate BioNet. A network made up of re-engineered erythrocytes. These red blood cells, which would function as carriers to deliver oxygen to the body tissues are reconfigured into DNA retainers storing and reprocessing data or memories. In its profitable biotech engineering scheme, GENOM Co. harvests orgasmic data transactions to produce red pills for mass pharmaceutical markets.
The exhibition takes scenes from Shu Lea Cheang’s (b. 1954 in Taiwan) sci-fi viral alt-reality film UKI (2023) between gallery walls pasted with G-stamped red blood cells. We become part of this science fiction playing out with bio-informatics, bio-engineering and intricate network construct that we follow on advertisement screens and in a video of GENOM’s bio-scientists debating the operation’s data mining and its potential glitches in creating an in-between species.
We have departed from the gender binary and deviated into transgenic discourse. We are part of integrated circuits of bio-networks which build upon our bio-info data.
For the International Summer Academy Shu Lea Cheang teaches the course 'Code Me, Love Me, Set Me Free: Queerdom in other-worlds' (14 August - 26 September 2023)
key data
- Venue
- Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus
- Date
- 12. 8. – 2. 9. 23
- Opening hours
- Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus Waagplatz 1a, 5020 Salzburg Tueday-Friday: 2-6 p.m.; Saturday: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free admission
- Events
- 11 August 2023, Galerie Kunst im Traklhaus 7 p.m. opening, 8 p.m. artist talk with Shu Lea Cheang in English
Shu Lea Cheang
Shu Lea Cheang “My work aims to re-envision genders, genres, and operating structures. My genre‑bending, gender‑hacking practices challenge the existing operating mechanisms and society’s structural boundaries. I build social interface with transgressive plots and open network that permits public participation; I construct networked installation and multi-player performance in participatory impromptu mode; I draft sci-fi narratives in film scenario and artwork imagination. I seek to define a genre of new queer sci-fi cinema.”
Education including teaching experience
1979 Master of Arts, Cinema Studies, New York University
1976 Bachelor of Arts, History, National Taiwan University
Teaching
2003-2004 Networked performance, Zürcher Hochschule der Künste, Zurich (CH)
2002 HUMANMATERIALMACHINEFACTOR, Dasarts, Amsterdam
Website
Exhibitions
Group exhibition
2023 Sade Freedon or Evil, CCCB, Barcelona (ES)
2023 Matter of Flux, Art Laboratory Berlin, Berlin
2022 Reproduction Otherwise, MU Hybrid Art House, Eindhoven (NL)
2022 Kingdom of the Ill TECHNO HUMANITIES, MUSEION, Bolzano (IT)
2022 FUTURE BODIES FROM A RECENT PAST, Museum Brandhorst, Munich (DE)
2022 A Portal to the Next, Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan, South Korea
2021 Witch Hunt, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (US)
Publications
Recent publications/reviews
Pleasure by Extraction Shu Lea Cheang at the musee departemental des arts asiatiques review by Fracesco Tenaglia, published at Art in America, 2021
Viral Love, Shu Lea Cheang portrait by Banyi Hwang, Spike Art, 2021
Dissident Interfaces, Shu Lea Cheang’s 3x3x6 and the Digital Avant-Garde, Paul B.Preciado, 3x3x6 catalogue, 2019
Society Has Become the Biggest Panopticon, Zach Blas/Frieze, 2019
The Digiarchitextual Body – or: Brandon’s Corporeal Virtualities, Jeppe Ugelvig, Parallax 91, Routledge, 2019
