Artist
Ting-Ting Cheng
Artist Biography
Ting-Ting Cheng was born in 1985, Taiwan. She moved to London in 2008 and has based in London since. With advertisement as her first degree, Cheng is interested in the transmission of information in our society. In her practice, she used video, photography and installation to explore how information was constructed, filtered, transmitted, interpreted and perceived. As an immigrant in Europe, Cheng also explores the symbol of identities embedded in coded information. She participated artist in residencies in London, Mallorca, Berlin and Ho Chi Minh City. Inspired by her personal experiences, Cheng conducted social experiments to examine the relationship between the foreignness and the local, questioning the media constructed stereotypes, at the same time, investigating unnoticed historical events. Recently, Cheng has been researching into the influence of tourism on the construction of national identity, articulating the relationship between politics, tourism and consumerism.
Education
2012-14 MFA Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, London 2008-09 MA Photographic Studies, University of Westminster, London
Selected exhibitions, biennials and art fairs
I know what you are trying to say II (solo), Nomart Gallery, Osaka Seeing is not Believing (solo), Luis Adelantado, Valencia The observer, Identity Gallery (solo), Hong Kong Distance in Between (solo), Galerie Grand Siècle, Taipei I know what you are trying to say (solo), Rowan Arts, London Object Fantasy (solo), Taipei Fine Art Museum, Taipei Jo vull Aprendre Mallorqui (solo), Addaya Art Centre, Mallorca Art 14, London No one river flows, KuanDu Museum, Taipei Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architechture, Shenzen National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taichung National Art Museum of China, Beijing Made in Taiwan, Art Taipei, Taipei III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow
Upcoming exhibitions
Feb 2015, MACO Madrid / ARCO Mexico by Luis Adelantado, Valencia Oct 2015, solo show at Galerie Grand Siècle, Taipei
Website
www.chengtingting.com
You see what I see The project was made for Starkmann Major Reference Works (MRW) Bibliography, Spring/ Summer 2015. For the project, I borrowed books from public libraries in London, which corresponds to the index of MRW bibliography, including History, Art, Religion, Science, Philosophy, Psychology, War & Defense, Gender, gay and lesbian studies, and then covered up the chosen contents by colour papers with restickable glue, then return the altered books back to the libraries. Narrative, relationship and action of covering In 1953, artist Robert Rauschenberg obtained a drawing from artist Willem de Kooning. He erased the image, and then titled the blank paper “Erased de Kooning Drawing”. Peter Ed Muir described the action or erasure – “When the pre-existing perceptual data is removed from its original surface of display, the connotative gesture of that erasure can be interpreted as shifting the focus of the beholder’s attention towards the devices of its framing, towards the wider aesthetic forms and their interaction within disciplinary fields, to the relationship with narrative, towards institutional discourse and the spectator.” (Peter Ed Muir 2006, 267-268)1 Here, by covering the selected contents, I intend to shift the attention from the taken-for-granted images towards the captioned texts (the framing), the void above, the disappearance or the ruin within this particular context (institutional system), triggering readers’ curiosities towards the reason of covering, exploring the (in)accessibility of information in our daily life. The action of not erasure but ‘covering’ created an interaction and a narrative between me (as the author), the image and the spectators (readers), in both physical reality (actual libraries) as well as the bibliography here – I, as a subject, covered the content, in order to prevent you, from seeing. And the difference between the project here and Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning Drawing is that, instead of ‘erasing’, I’ve chosen to ‘cover’ it, which implies that the contents are still there, I know what it is, just that YOU cannot see. It’s hidden, from YOU, the spectator in the context here and now. Authority and institutional system The fact that the books were borrowed from public libraries instead of being purchased as my own property also plays an important role here. For Erased de Kooning Drawing, it’s important that the original drawing was made by de Kooning, the famous artist, in order to create the ‘awww factor’, the factor generated by the value of the original. Here the awww factor is not caused by artistic or financial value, but the authority represented by the libraries as institutions. By altering the books, I intend to challenge the concept of authority, by becoming the authority myself. The Arbitrary and illusional colours in visible spectrum The title came from BBC’s documentary “Do you see what I see?” (2011), inspired by the children’s game with the same name. The programme explored the concept ‘colour as an 1 Peter Ed Muir, 2006: ‘Act of Erasure: October and the Index’, in Writing and Seeing, Essays on Word And Image, 267-268
illusion’ and how people view colours differently by a series of scientific experiments. Colours are lights with different wavelengths. Human eyes send the signals into the brains, and the latter translates the signals into the concept of colours. So in a way that colour doesn’t exist, at least literally. The apple is not red. It just reflects light with the wavelength telling our brains that it is red. The process is more arbitrary than we generally believe. For example, the Himba in north Namibia has only five words to describe colours, which categorize colours by their shades instead of the colour systems we inhabit in English world. So the Himba could easily spot different shades of greens, which might be difficult for us, but find it hard to spot blue among all greens, which would be considered easy for people here. It’s not because of any biological difference. The languages and the cultures influence how we interpret things. Colour is not a natural phenomenon, but a cultural concept we perceive. Here I used colour papers to replace / cover the original images. The illusional light is reflected, sending signals from your eyes to your brains, forming new narratives to hide the original contents. We interpret colours through our experiences, same as the way we construct images based on the captioned texts. And back to what Peter Ed Muir’s statement, “When the pre-existing perceptual data…” If the data is not perceived (like the original images here), does it still exist? What’s the definition of existence? Is the information here same as the concept of colours, that they don’t really exist in a way? Do you really see what I see? The project explores the arbitrary of categorizing and censorship of information in the context of library and institutional systems, as well as the authoritative connotation embedded. As a relay of the images, the texts here are designed to create imagination towards the constructed reality. In History, 909.82, the original content could be a map, a painting, or a photograph. What could it depict? And why is First World War the division? If we take the recent Charlie Hebdo attack (2015) in Paris as the example, did we see equal media coverage of the Baga massacre (2015) in Nigeria happened around the same time, with over 2000 deaths? What is your imagination towards Africa before First World War? And in Art, 709.04, I intend to challenge people’s perception of colour, exploring the relation between the textual and visual description by swapping Black Square into a red square. As the texts explained, “…even though he had removed all reference to the known world, the viewer’s brain would attempt to rationalize the painting: to attempt to find meaning.” (Will Gompertz 2012, 171)2 In Religion, 297 and Philogsophy, REL 193, I try to offer the imagination of alternative images against the media constructed stereotypes. In Science, 530.11, the once believed theory, Ptolemy’s Model, was ‘censored’ by a green block, which was designed to question the ‘common sense’ we take in unconditionally nowadays. War & Defencre, 355.825, Music, 782.421 and Gender, gay and lesbian studies, 306.766 are aimed to discuss the influence of politics on mass media and the changing regulation of censorships. With the covered contents, the project explores the political, cultural, historical, sociological control of information, the (in)visibility and the (in)accessibility, what is being seen and what is not, questioning the seemingly objective knowledge and information that we take it for granted.
2 Will Gompertz, 2012: What are you looking at? 150 years of Modern Art, England: Viking
List of images (by order)
History, 909.82 (Twenty Century, J.M. Roberts, New Cross Library) Art, 709.04 (What are you looking at? 150 years of Modern Art, Will Gompertz, Peckham Library) Religion, 297 (The illustrated Encyclopedia of Islam, Raana Bokhari and Dr. Mohammad Seddon, The Library at Deptford Lounge) Science, 530.11 (A briefer history of time, Stephen Hawking with Leonard Mlodinow, West Greeniwch Library) Philogsophy, REL 193 (Hitler's philosophers, Yvone Sharratt, John Harvard Library) Music 782.421 (33 Revolutions per minute, Dorian Lynskey, Cubitt Town Library) War & Defencre, 355.825 (The Manhattan Project, big science and the atom bomb, Jeff Huges, Idea Store Whitechapel) Gender, gay and lesbian studies, 306.766 (Gay life and culture, world history, edited by Robert Aldrich, Lewisham Library)