Shu Lea Cheang
Encyclopedia
Shu Lea Cheang is a multi-media artist who works in the fields of net-based installation
,social interface and film production.
Over the past decade, she has emerged as a prominent figure in new media art
. Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies. Her work is unique in allowing viewer interaction. She is most noted for her individual approach in the realm of art and technology, creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods.
Cheang's art ranges in mediums such as film, video, net-based installation, and interface, which explore "...ethnic stereotyping, the nature and excesses of popular media, institutional - and especially governmental - power, race relations, and sexual politics." ("Shu Lea Cheang") Most recently, she has moved to 35mm feature filmmaking.
She has been a member of the Paper Tiger Television
collective since 1981. Though originally based in New York, Cheang is currently living and working in Paris, France.
Commissioned by the Walker and funded by AT&T
New Art/New Visions, the installation linked Walker's Gallery 7, the city's community bowling alley Bryant-Lake Bowl and the World Wide Web. Bowling Alley mixed real-life with cyberspace to illustrate the similarities and differences of how people communicate with one another face-to-face and through the Internet.
Another major Web-based project Cheang created was Brandon. The one-year narrative project explored the issues of gender fusion and techno-body in both public space and cyberspace. The site gathers its name from Brandon Teena
, a transman who was raped and murdered in 1993 after his biological sex was revealed. The Web-based art work was the first commissioned by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It explores Brandon Teena's story in an experimental way that conveys the "fluidity and ambiguity of gender and identity in contemporary societies."
She directed the feature film I.K.U.
(2000), a pornographic film which she claimed was inspired by Blade Runner
, which was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award.
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
,social interface and film production.
Over the past decade, she has emerged as a prominent figure in new media art
New media art
New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...
. Cheang is one of the leading multimedia artists dealing with multidisciplinary studies. Her work is unique in allowing viewer interaction. She is most noted for her individual approach in the realm of art and technology, creatively intermingling social issues with artistic methods.
Cheang's art ranges in mediums such as film, video, net-based installation, and interface, which explore "...ethnic stereotyping, the nature and excesses of popular media, institutional - and especially governmental - power, race relations, and sexual politics." ("Shu Lea Cheang") Most recently, she has moved to 35mm feature filmmaking.
She has been a member of the Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television is an open media collective dedicated to raising media literacy and challenging corporate control over broadcast medium. Based in New York City, Paper Tiger was founded in 1981....
collective since 1981. Though originally based in New York, Cheang is currently living and working in Paris, France.
Notable works
Bowling Alley (Cheang, Shu Lea. Bowling Alley. 1995. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN) was Cheang's first cybernetic installation. Cheang collaborated with other Minneapolis artists to present a work which set to challenge the idea of what is personal and public, popular art and fine art by intertwining these oppositions.Commissioned by the Walker and funded by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
New Art/New Visions, the installation linked Walker's Gallery 7, the city's community bowling alley Bryant-Lake Bowl and the World Wide Web. Bowling Alley mixed real-life with cyberspace to illustrate the similarities and differences of how people communicate with one another face-to-face and through the Internet.
Another major Web-based project Cheang created was Brandon. The one-year narrative project explored the issues of gender fusion and techno-body in both public space and cyberspace. The site gathers its name from Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena
Brandon Teena was an American trans man who was raped and murdered in Humboldt, Nebraska. His life and death were the subject of the Academy Award-winning 1999 film Boys Don't Cry, which was based on the documentary film The Brandon Teena Story.-Life:Teena was born Teena Renae Brandon in Lincoln,...
, a transman who was raped and murdered in 1993 after his biological sex was revealed. The Web-based art work was the first commissioned by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. It explores Brandon Teena's story in an experimental way that conveys the "fluidity and ambiguity of gender and identity in contemporary societies."
She directed the feature film I.K.U.
I.K.U.
I.K.U. is a 2001 independent film directed by Taiwanese-American experimental filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang. It was marketed as "a Japanese Sci-Fi Porn Feature". The film was partially inspired by Blade Runner . I.K.U.s premise involves a futuristic corporation sending shapeshifting cyborgs out into New...
(2000), a pornographic film which she claimed was inspired by Blade Runner
Blade Runner
Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K...
, which was nominated for an International Fantasy Film Award.
External links
- Bowling Alley
- Brandon
- Shu Lea Cheang in the Video Data BankVideo Data BankVideo Data Bank is an international video art distribution organization and a resource in the United States for videos by and about contemporary artists...