｜Artist Chen Chieh-Jen (1960-)

Born in 1960, Chen Chieh-Jen currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan. No Taiwanese contemporary visual artist can get any higher profile than Chen in the international art scene. Chen has exhibited his works at prestigious biennials home and abroad, including Taipei Biennial (1998/2002/2004), São Paulo Art Biennial (1998), Venice Biennale (Taiwan Pavilion 1999/themed exhibition 2005), Biennale d’art contemporain de Lyon (2000), Gwangju Biennale (2000), Shanghai Biennale (2004), and Liverpool Biennial (2006). He has also staged his solo exhibitions at major museums around the world, including “ASIA TICA II – Chen Chieh-Jen” at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris (2001), “Condensation: Five Video Artworks by Chen Chieh-Jen” at the Asia Society Museum, New York (2007), and “Military Court and Prison – Chen Chieh-Jen Solo Exhibition” at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2008). He won the 13th National Award for Arts as a visual artist in 2009.

Based on his personal experience, Chen has been paying attention to the history and social phenomena of Taiwan, seeking to explore how the disadvantaged are ignored, hidden and forgotten by the mainstream narrative under the “power asymmetry,” the “established institutional oppression” or the “herd behavior in the consumer culture.”

Edited images and videos are the staple of Chen’s oeuvre. He tends to represent, engage in, and reinterpret contemporary issues he’s concerned with, so as to create his auto-écriture of the time as an infinitesimal resistance and reminder in the concealed, fractured historical fragments.

｜Installation view  ｜Chen Chieh-Jen, Factory, 2003, Video installation (super 16mm transferred to DVD, color, silent, 31 minutes 09 seconds, single-channel, continuous projection)

Artists who reoriented themselves toward socio-political criticism mushroomed after the lifting of martial law in Taiwan. Among them, however, Chen is the only one who has been able to take abiding interest in related issues and meanwhile question and cogitate on them. With his lifelong devotion to artistic creation, Chen is accepted as one of the most iconic contemporary artists both in Taiwan and in the world.

Chen’s works created between 1996 and 2008 will be introduced below, including “Revolt in the Soul & Body: 1900-1999” (1996-1999), “Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph” (2002), “Factory” (2003), “Bade Area” (2005), “On Going” (2006), “The Route] (2006), and “Military Court and Prison” (2007-2008).

1 Chen Chieh-Jen, “Revolt in the Soul & Body: 1900-1999 -- Artist Statement”.

2 Chen Chieh-Jen, “Chen Chieh-Jen: My Photographic Aestheticization of Violence,” Southern Metropolis Weekly, 2010.

3 Amy Cheng, “The Art Practice of Chen Chieh-Jen: From as “Other” to as Historical Subject’s Self-empowerment”, Contemporary Art & Investment Issue 32, 2009, P30.

“Revolt in the Soul & Body: 1900-1999” is an iconic series of image art made from post-production in the history of contemporary art in Taiwan. Completed between 1996 and 1999, its pieces include [Genealogy of Self] (1996), [Being Castrated] (1996), [Self-Destruction] (1996), [Rule of Law] (1997), [Lost Voice I, II, III] (1997), [Image of Absent Mind] (1998), [The Image of Identical Twins] (1998), [Na-Cha’s Body] (1998), and [A Way Going to an Insane City] (1999).

Through this series, Chen examines the history of the “photographed” as well as the gradual transition of “punishment” and “violence” from explicitness to implicitness during the process of modernization. This series is tantamount to a modern history of punishment and violence. The first piece [Genealogy of Self] is based on a photograph of lingchi (a form of torture) during the Qing dynasty in China. Under the Western photographer’s dominant photographic action, the one being tortured becomes the “photographed,” the one who finds no way of escape. Chen adapts this photograph by replicating the victim’s head and adding his own face as a spectator, which deepens the viewer’s anxiety and confusion over this photograph.

 [Genealogy of Self], [Being Castrated], [Self-Destruction], [Rule of Law], and [Lost Voice I, II, III] all treat historical photographs as the point of departure, recounting the history of punishment and violence in Chen’s eyes, which spans the range from the torture-like punishments in the Qing dynasty—lingchi and castration ([Genealogy of Self] and [Being Castrated]) to the institutional violence and ethnic self-destruction during nation building—the purge of the Chinese Nationalist Party, the carnage of the Chinese Civil War, and the quelling of the Musha Incident ([Self-Destruction], [Rule of Law], and [Lost Voice I, II, III]).

When creating [Image of Absent Mind], [The Image of Identical Twins], [Na-Cha’s Body], and [A Way Going to an Insane City], Chen no longer bases them on historical photographs. Their compositions are completely the results of Chen’s imagination, and his personal experience in the martial law period arises as their subject—violence doesn’t occur explicitly any longer, but wields its controlling power through the state apparatus.

By virtue of his art series “Revolt in the Soul & Body: 1900-1999,” Chen raises a concatenation of criticism centering on the relationship between the Occident and non-Occident, the correlation between photographic action and power, the development of punishment, violence and modern states, the implicitness in historical narratives, and the scenarios of internalized punishment.

1 Amy Cheng, “The History of the Photographed—A Dialogue with Chen Chieh-Jen on ‘Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph’,” ARTCO No. 129, June 2003.

2 Joyce C.H. Liu, “Chen Chieh-Jen's Visual Critique Modernity: A Psychoanalytic Reading”, Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 30(8), 2002.

｜Installation view  ｜Chen Chieh-Jen, Lingchi -- Echoes of a Historical Photograph, 2002, Video installation (super 16mm transferred to DVD, three-channel video installation, black & white, separate sound, 21 minutes 04 seconds)

｜Installation view  ｜Chen Chieh-Jen, Lingchi -- Echoes of a Historical Photograph, 2002, Video installation (super 16mm transferred to DVD, three-channel video installation, black & white, separate sound, 21 minutes 04 seconds)

As a work of partial audio video created by Chen in 2002, “Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph” owes its inspiration to a photograph of lingchi taken by a French soldier in China in 1905. For Chen, the two deep wounds on the chest of the victim in the photograph are reminiscent of the “time tunnel” that links the past with the present. On one end of the tunnel is the brutal darkness of the past we learned through the historical photograph, whilst on the other end is the lingchi-like process of “modernization” gradually shown to us.

The imagery of lingchi is ubiquitous, inter alia, the laboratory of Japanese Unit 731, the Taiwan Lyudao Prison for political prisoners during the Cold War, the heavy pollution emitted by multinational companies’ factories, and the exploitation of cheap labor and fraudulent insolvency of processing plants. All repetitive, endless and inhumane forms of torture can be described as “lingchi.”

Chen also seeks to investigate the hint of an enigmatic smile crossing the victim’s lips in this video. The shackled victim looking at the camera is every bit as looking at the viewer (and the future) through the camera lens. He not only serves as a passive subject to be recorded, but also possesses “agency.” Accordingly, the trace of a smile crossing his lips is one as “proactive” as “responsive” to Chen’s eye, aiming to bewilder the viewer, from which the meaning of the lingchi image is “extended”—attracting people’s continuous attention upon which the existence of this video rests.

On the other hand, from “Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph” onwards, Chen’s works have drawn history closer to us by reference to the “status quo of our quotidian existence.”² The cast of this video features unemployed workers and students in Taiwan. The props, costumes and hair accessories exhibit an eclectic mix of diverse forms from different eras. The female worker dormitory of the Lian-Fu Clothing Factory that went into fraudulent insolvency in 1996 is one of the five architectural relics in this video. Art critic Amy Cheng wrote:

1 Amy Cheng, “The History of the Photographed—A Dialogue with Chen Chieh-Jen on ‘Lingchi – Echoes of a Historical Photograph’,” ARTCO No. 129, June 2003.

2 Amy Cheng, “The Story of Time—Chen Chieh-Jen’s Bade Area,” ARTCO No. 159, Dec. 2005.

3 Amy Cheng, “The Story of Time—Chen Chieh-Jen’s Bade Area,” ARTCO No. 159, Dec. 2005.

“Factory” comprises a silent video and still printouts created by Chen in 2003. Treating the history of Taiwan’s processing industry that spans nearly 30 years as the entry point, this series ruminates upon the passivity and predestination of workers under capitalism.

In the 1960s, Taiwan became the “factory of the world” under the capitalist configuration. From the 1990s onward, however, the global economy was reshuffled. Taiwan no longer enjoyed the economic prosperity brought by cheap labor and gradually faced the dilemma about whether to relocate its factories in countries having cheaper labor and higher labor intensity. In Taiwan, the impressive number of factory closures and layoffs have made a contrast between the “mobile” factories that are free to move and the “immobile” unemployed workers who are stuck in the same place.

In the framing site of Chen’s “Factory”, you can see the remaining machines, workbenches, time recorders, and electric fans. These objects are abandoned in place, as if they had taken root in the factory. In the video, the participating female workers return to their familiar workplace and habitually operate the sewing machines, spontaneously interacting with the space and the objects therein.

This video is filmed by Chen who invited the female workers to their familiar place. The content is interwoven with the official black-and-white propaganda films of Taiwan’s export processing zone. Characterized by silent and slow narratives that reconstruct and represent the fading collective memories, this video foregrounds the substitutability, immobility and dispensability of the disadvantaged workers in face of the march of national and social progress.

1 Amy Cheng, “A Richly Imaginative and Robust Existence—A Dialogue with Chen Chieh-Jen,” Modern Art No. 112, Feb. 2004.

2 Teng Sue-feng, “Going it Alone --The Video Art of Chen Chieh-Jen”, Taiwan Panorama Magazine, July 2008.

“Bade Area” comprises a silent video and still printouts created by Chen in 2005. It addresses the emergence of cosmopolitan cities where capital and talents converge under the influence of globalization and urbanization, as well as the gradually declining and shrinking peripheries at the same time due to the failure of industrial transformation and the uneven allocation of national resources. These areas can be called “Bade” or any other name, but they are commonly ignored and their existence is hardly recognized.

｜Installation view  ｜Chen Chieh-Jen, Bade Area, 2005, Video installation (super 16mm transferred to DVD, color, silent, 30 minutes, single-channel, continuous projection)

The work “Bade Area” owes its inspiration to an investment promotion advertisement titled “Magnificent Town.” Instead of beautiful pictures, this advertisement features nothing but the two big words. Following the arrow on the advertisement, we’ll see an undeveloped wasteland which stands in sharp contrast to the big advertising title.

In the surrounding area of this wasteland is rife with abandoned factories of all stripes waiting for reselling, dismantling or reconstruction in the indefinite future, and the dwellers in this “area” are also seeking their livelihood in response to the changing external conditions.

In the video, several contingent workers repeatedly move old computers or dumped desks and chairs. Does this kind of behavior mean that these contingent workers have to keep repeating their physical labor so as to make a living? Besides, the items have not been removed from the factory. Does it insinuate these contingent workers’ inability to leave this “area?” Even though the environment has changed beyond recognition in which nothing remains the same, these workers can do no other thing than drifting with the waves and going with the flow.

For people in a time of rapid economic change, to predict and master the future is like herding cats. The contingent workers in this video represent little more than a common, continual scene in our quotidian existence. For the dwellers in this area, it doesn’t seem to matter anymore whether the future of the “Magnificent Town” is like an azure sky or an ephemeral mirage. They’re simply trapped in the same place.

1 Amy Cheng, “The Story of Time—Chen Chieh-Jen’s Bade Area,” ARTCO No. 159, Dec. 2005.

2 Amy Cheng, “The Story of Time—Chen Chieh-Jen’s Bade Area,” ARTCO No. 159, Dec. 2005.

“On Going” comprises a silent video and still printouts created by Chen in 2006. It portrays the living and working conditions of two friends of Chen “here.”

The video proceeds in two parts. The first part features Chen’s friend who works at the 85 Sky Tower in Kaohsiung. More than half of the stories have been left unused for years due to poor management. The company operated by just one person, viz. Chen’s friend, is located in this building. Skyscrapers are emblematic of modern states. However, the skyscraper, with its magnificent façade, appears desolate in its interior, as if it were a modern prison, or a mirage projected by this society’s desire and anxiety for “modernization.”¹

The protagonist in the second part is a left-wing student who has engaged in anti-war and anti-globalization movements in Taiwan. In a deserted underground parking lot, he continues to promote his idea with a truck and a manual mimeograph. He gathers external information in the gloom, and then he drives away from the parking lot to the street near the Taipei 101 in the Xinyi District, lifts the truck cover and starts to distribute the flyers he had printed.

“Just as the reality that we haven’t yet cast off the cold-war ideology, this video on local politics remains, for me, ‘unfinished’ or ‘ongoing,’” Chen said so in the artist statement.

1 Chen Chieh-Jen, “On Going -- Artist Statement”.

“The Route” comprises a silent video and still printouts created by Chen in 2006. In this video, Chen invites dockworkers at the Port of Kaohsiung to stage a fictitious strike as an allusion to the Neptune Jade incident that continued over a span from 1995 to 1997.

In 1995, 20 dockworkers in Liverpool were laid off by the Mersey Dock & Harbor Company without being notified in advance. The rest 400 dockworkers ergo launched a protest strike, echoed by a global response of dockworkers against port privatization. The strike lasted for two years. In September 1997, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) solidified the network to support the strike in Liverpool and refused to unload the cargo ship Neptune Jade bound for the Port of Oakland at the San Francisco Bay. The final record shows that the Port of Kobe refused to unload Neptune Jade as well. It eventually left Kobe, Japan for the Port of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where the shipping company auctioned off the ship along with the cargo.²

｜Installation view  ｜Chen Chieh-Jen, The Route, 2006, Video installation (35mm film transferred to DVD, color & b/w, silent, 16 minutes & 45 seconds, single-channel, continuous loop)

Overall, “The Route” revolves around the thought of “if at that time.” In 1997, Taiwan did not take part in that protest strike because it was not included in the ILWU network. Therefore, Chen organized a fictitious strike at the Port of Kaohsiung in 2006 to make up for Taiwan’s absence in the global network and to symbolize that Taiwan and the world fight side by side to embody the spirit of strike.

1 Teng Sue-feng, “Going it Alone --The Video Art of Chen Chieh-Jen”, Taiwan Panorama Magazine, July 2008.

2 Chen Chieh-Jen, “The Route -- Artist Statement”.

The Detention Center of the Military Law Bureau was the site where political prisoners were incarcerated in the martial law period in Taiwan. Chen revisited this site in 2007 to consider whether the martial law has really been lifted, whether “exclusion” and “supervision” continue to be the means for social control, whether the “dissenting” voices from different races, societies and classes be heard, and whether the “martial law” still governs some people (e.g. migrant workers, foreign spouses, unemployed workers, and vagrants) in Taiwan.²

The video “Military Court and Prison” starts with the following subtitle: “The martial law will be lifted at the upcoming midnight 00:00. It’s 23:55:50 now. I’ll be allowed to leave in less than five minutes.” A forgotten political prisoner is wandering in the video. By the end of the video, the time is still frozen at 23:55:50 before the lifting of martial law. Everyone in the video can never shake off the shackles of martial law.

The characters in this video include migrant workers, foreign spouses, unemployed workers, and vagrants, namely the disadvantaged. In the era of global capitalism, are there still some people living under the control and surveillance of the state apparatus? Just as these characters in this video, it seems that the dawn will never come and they can do nothing but keep drifting, permanently trapped in this fabricated penitentiary.

“Military Court and Prison” is Chen’s first audio video with the sounds of people’s footsteps on the cement floor, people flipping through the pages of law books and court’s judgments, as well as people striving to push the iron sheets. All this alludes to the reverberations caused by people who rebel against the system.

1 Teng Sue-feng, “Going it Alone --The Video Art of Chen Chieh-Jen”, Taiwan Panorama Magazine, July 2008.

2 Chen Chieh-Jen, “Military Court and Prison -- Artist Statement”.

3 Amy Cheng, “Create Another Writing Space Out of Forbidden Zone and Museum – Dialogue with Chen Chieh-Jen about Military Court and Prison”, Contemporary Art & Investment Issue 32, 2009, P36.