Land scape
Stephen Chen
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW
concepts in lieu of direct experience in their creative process, the works I personally find intriguing are those that stemmed from personal experience – somehow I feel that comes through in the work. Even if one did not have direct experience, I think one has to somehow make sense of it through one’ s personal experience to better connect with the audience.
For example, I was recently invited to create a hybrid projection-performance piece for a fundraiser for Haiti victims. I have never been to Haiti, the last time it was in my consciousness was media coverage of millions of dollars that was raised in aid. The easy route would be to just show scenes of devastation. As I did more research, I was appalled to discover most of the aid money went to corrupt contractors and organizations, and the majority of Haitians were still living in slums 6 years after the earthquake. I was incensed at what had happened, and at the apathy and complacency of most people and myself that allowed this to happen. By structuring the piece around this anger, I was able to relay and relate what happened to my and the audience experience.
Where I think personal experience is absolutely indispensable( which you have already pointed out in James Turrell) is in one’ s creative obsession. Growing up in Singapore and eventually ending up as a refugee in North America in my mid-20s; what struck me was how people can’ t see the limitations imposed on their thought, whether in a repressive regime or democratic society. I became obsessed with trying to transcend the limitations of existing knowledge structures through art. My investigations into the tensions and dialectic of what is considered“ natural” vs. man made, is an outcome of this obsession.