EVgo 2022
4K UHD, color, sound, Single-channel-video, 02:22 minutes
This artistic endeavor employs a nuanced palette of intimate soundscapes to intricately portray the everyday experience of consumers at EVgo stations. It delves deep into the concept of "Voice of the Customer" (VoC), a term encapsulating the rich tapestry of customer feedback, encompassing their experiences and anticipations regarding the services and products offered. The camera work in this piece is executed with a fluid, organic motion, subtly suggesting the notion of an observational presence, almost akin to a watchful eye of surveillance. This omnipresent gaze captures the essence of the consumer journey, yet intriguingly, the piece omits the visual presence of a quintessential character in this narrative - a female salesperson, traditionally imagined in high heels. This absence creates a juxtaposition between the seen and the unseen, the heard and the unspoken, enhancing the level of contemplation and engagement for the audience. The work invites viewers to reflect on the layers of customer interaction and the unseen facets of the consumer experience in the modern digital age.
4K UHD, color, sound, Single-channel-video, 02:22 minutes
This artistic endeavor employs a nuanced palette of intimate soundscapes to intricately portray the everyday experience of consumers at EVgo stations. It delves deep into the concept of "Voice of the Customer" (VoC), a term encapsulating the rich tapestry of customer feedback, encompassing their experiences and anticipations regarding the services and products offered. The camera work in this piece is executed with a fluid, organic motion, subtly suggesting the notion of an observational presence, almost akin to a watchful eye of surveillance. This omnipresent gaze captures the essence of the consumer journey, yet intriguingly, the piece omits the visual presence of a quintessential character in this narrative - a female salesperson, traditionally imagined in high heels. This absence creates a juxtaposition between the seen and the unseen, the heard and the unspoken, enhancing the level of contemplation and engagement for the audience. The work invites viewers to reflect on the layers of customer interaction and the unseen facets of the consumer experience in the modern digital age.
Untitled, 2022
4K UHD, color, sound, Single-channel-video, 08:30 minutes
The untitled single-channel video work combines the text of "The Legend of the White Snake" with advertising materials to create a multi-layered narrative environment. It explores the roles of animals and women in the conceptual culture of narrative and language construction. Set in a mysterious and transcendent single scene, reminiscent of a dynamic magazine cover, the actors respond to surrounding objects in indistinct postures. Initially, the text seems unrelated to the scene, but as the images unfold in a hypnotic deceleration, a subtle interpretation gradually reveals itself. The work examines glitch feminism's aims to disrupt and challenge classical art notions centered on patriarchy and the West. It questions universally accepted cultural symbols, images, and information, seeking new interpretative possibilities. It serves the 'Other' or other species while deeply reflecting on and questioning the socio-cultural assumptions behind these symbols.
Animism and its forms in capitalism
4K UHD, color, sound, Single-channel-video, 06:13 minutes
Karl Marx, in the first chapter of "Capital: A Critique of Political Economy," highlights the commodity-form and the value-relation of products as having no intrinsic connection to the physical nature of the commodity. Instead, they represent a social relation between individuals, taking the fantastic form of a relation between things. This echoes the same practice seen in animism, where the idea of mysterious quality between objects mesmerizes us in the capitalist society. The pivotal distinction lies in the fact that the powers within these objects are no longer unique—once they become reproducible; they can be easily replaced, with every identical item possessing the same mesmerizing power. This power is disseminated through billboards, display windows in streets, and massive distribution centers like Amazon warehouses. This results in our daily consumption experience. The work integrates these consumption experiences with the Internationale as the background, trying to draw an analogy between the ghost of commodity fetishism and the ghost of Marx.
ⓒ 2024 Tingting Cheng