Artists

Photo Credit: NIU Chun-Chiang

CHAO Shu-Jung

CHAO Shu-Jung is a contemporary art artist. Her works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human experiences such as memory, time travel, culture/language and aspects of consciousness, as well as in the public sphere 'globalization' issues. CHAO grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. After her long residences in France, she evolved a lifetime ambition to video art, new media, multimedia and contemporary art. In 2009,CHAO graduated from Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Bourges with a Master in Fine Arts. In 2011-12, she participated the Post-graduate programme from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratif de Paris. Beside several participations with international art festivals, her work was selected for the « ARTE Video Night 2011 ». Broadcast on ARTE, Cinematheque of Toulouse and Digital Culture Art Center in Paris.



In 2011, she was selected as the Taiwan's Emerging Artist by Ministry of Culture. In the same year, her work was collected by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taiwan. In 2013, her work was collected for « ArtBank » supported by Ministry of Culture.



Artist
Statement.

/Residency Recollections:

A person with simultaneity and multiculturalism, a foreigner, a stateless person, or a traveler…how does one sharpen his or her points of view on the world and question one’s situation in this world at a given moment?



I grew up in Taiwan, the country that I left five years ago. When I first arrived in France, I had a huge culture shock, which originated from unfamiliar language, habits, and history. I experienced self break-through and developed a relationship with myself during these years. Several years after having left my hometown in Taiwan, I felt like a foreigner when I returned to my native land. I characterize it as my ‘Double Strangenesses’ (Double Uncanny).



The barrier between my country of origin and myself, these ‘Double Strangenesses’ deeply strengthened and contributed to my artistic course.



For several years, I have developed personal and significant work related to exile, voyage, and the ‘voyages in my memory.’ Many of my voyages helped me to develop my sensitive faculties. All of these brought me closer to my identity - floating between two worlds, the nomadism of my situation, and the deep uprooting that conditions me.



The video and photography helped me to save my footprint in time: to fix every possible moment, memory, and situation. My work is often full of dialogues, murmurings, confessions, or a series of sounds. The words are like a channel to preserve time. The series of sounds are a mixture of sounds in daily life and the personal interior. The sound prolongs the vision and enlarges the field of the video. The sounds in the video and the atmosphere of the video extend the depth of it, and further bring the audience into an unsettling environment of an ‘Uncanny’ experience.

I continue exploring topics in contemporary art that I have been following since 2005: a sense of belonging, identity, exile, constructed scenes, digression, seeking of a utopia, climate change, and all the phenomena and symbols created as a result of globalization. I am particularly interested in the concept of exile, travel, and ‘voyage in memories.’ I pay attention to the construction of identity, the psychological and mental emotions evoked from living in multiple worlds and multiple cultures. I record these things, these markings in time, through sounds and images.



There are two research themes for this residency. One is about the form of expression, another is about media extension. During my stay, I try to expand the scope of my work and incorporate local cultural elements. Through collaborating and interacting with local artists, I am able to absorb the local arts atmosphere and expand my language in spatial exploration, humanity research, and utilization of medium. I am more accepting of influences from different or similar cultures when developing my own work. Artwork and artistic language with more profound meaning are formed this way.

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