Hue – Installation Exhibition “The Foaming Weariness”

Opening: Fri 22 Nov 2013, 5 pm
Exhibition: 22 – 30 Nov 2013
New Space Arts Foundation, Hue

From the organizer:

You are invited to an installation art exhibition “The Foaming Weariness” by artist Chu Chun Teng (Taiwan).

The Foaming Weariness
2010
Mix media installation
rice, water, rice cooker, universal adapters
Dimensions Variable

Foaming steam、different country’s electric adapters adapting endlessly、rice cooker、scent of rice… The foaming weariness is a very simple and personal piece among my practices, it truly reflects my personally state in the pass three years.

Since 2008, I moved to London from Taiwan, and have been being just like most of international students who were expecting the experience of studying abroad would bring better/different future, but the cultural impacts and hardships in daily life are everywhere; For the reason, I pushed myself, also yearned for a better language ability, appropriate behaviors, and logical thoughts in order to integrate into this new society/cultural more. Measwhile, I started to be aware of the my native context and difference through this accommodation, then to struggle and question myself about that if it is impossible and unnecessary to change myself…

In conclusion, the endlessness-like adaptor connections shows a mental process that all kind of complex band together and entangled to another, in which the fatique me overflows by boiling just as the rice cooker.

severl key;Asian students’ shared memory, the dependence on rice, home, adapt, endless, warm, family, hungry, expectation, travel…

“The Rain in Spain stays mainly in the Plain”－My Fair Lady series no.2
2009
Single channel video
HDV
6：49 minutes

“The Rain in Spain stay mainly in the plain” is the sentence that Professor Higgins uses to train Eliza to pronounce the “A” sound in “My Fair Lady.” This sentence appeared constantly and was the most famous line in the movie; it eventually became the standard to judge if Eliza had succeeded. This video has continued my concern toward the impact of the post-colonial phenomenon on the individual and cultural identity crisis. This is also my second work inspired by the classic 70’s movie “My Fair Lady.”

This time I would like to present more directly, the parts in the movie that were deliberately beautified – the pains and struggles faced in the process of transformation. I found pre-sessional (a pre-Master’s English class, student’s that language grades did not fulfill entry requirements must pass the course before gaining official school entry) students and their instructors to film because these students that just arrived in England were just starting to face the clash between different cultural systems and self-identity. I attempted to reproduce how Professor Higgins trained Eliza in the movie. In the film, each student had a sheet of paper that was printed with “The Rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.” After the students read the sentence aloud, the professor would repeatedly correct the student’s pronunciation and articulation problems. In the final work, I removed the professor’s training process, and only showed the students repeating the line and making corrections, it is similar to NG footage in a movie, but no one can predict their performance in the next take.

Embarrassment, frustration, numbness, trying to pull oneself together, and frustration once again, reality is so cruel, we seem to clearly observe a transformation from being totally untrained to after training, but my question is what did we change in the end?