Asia
Chen Xiaoyun
Regard Eating Every Single Time as a Formal Declaration, My Stomach is Sexy out of Anger
2012
Regard Eating Every Single Time as a Formal Declaration, My Stomach is Sexy out of Anger
Titled Regard Eating Every Single Time as a Formal Declaration, My Stomach is Sexy out of Anger, this image of rusted nails, nuts and bolts as shrapnel sandwiched between a fried Chicken burger highlights the contrast between decadence and destruction. Chen Xiaoyun emphasizes the direct sensational impact of his work to allow his viewer to question the boundary between reality and art. The image of nails as food harks at a visceral relationship with the title, which cries the tone of a manifesto. Rather than symbolic statements or illusionistic tableaux, the image invokes simultaneously the terror and allure of anger and pain through a simple juxtaposition of metal hardware and convenience food.
Chen Xiaoyun studied ink painting at the Chinese Academy of Arts and lived as a writer in Suzhou before becoming part of the Hangzhou video art community. Chen’s works stages scenes of everyday life with elements of the strange and the absurd in order to explore existentialist themes through narratives of visual linearity. Chen is drawn to nighttime scenes of ambiguity, making use of shadows and silhouettes in concert with simple plots and fixed scenery to reconcile disjuncture in gazes and assert connections between the filmic eye and reality.