MEDIA KIT - Queensland Art Gallery - Queensland Government

CHEN CHIEH-JEN
b.1960 Taoyuan, Taiwan
Lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan
Chen Chieh-jen has been a significant figure in the development of Taiwanese conceptual art since the early 1980s. A
self-taught artist, he was a prominent and controversial figure during Taiwan’s martial law period, and his practice
directly reflects on the historical events through which he lived. Using the conventions of documentary filmmaking,
Chen’s films weave together real and historical footage, often conveying a sense of disjointedness by moving slowly
between past and present, prompting the viewer to consider the distinction between the real and the illusory. The
individual’s experience in communal settings (factories, prisons and places of industry), and the situation of those
existing outside the mainstream, are consistent strands in his work, including On Going 2006, to be featured in APT6.
Chen’s films are elegiac commentaries on human resilience and issues of accountability, critically addressing social
and economic inequities in contemporary society.
Exhibitions (solo): Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, 2008; Asia Society Museum, New York,
USA, 2007. Exhibitions (group): 53rd Biennale of Venice, Italy, 2009; Istanbul Biennial, Turkey, 2007; Biennale of
Sydney, Australia, 2006; 51st Biennale of Venice, Italy, 2005.
CHEN QIULIN
b.1975, Hubei, China
Lives and works in Chengdu, China
Chen Qiulin creates evocative video works that comment on the scale and pace of change in contemporary China.
With a focus on daily life in rural and village communities, her work has recently been concerned with the people living
along the Yangtze River – a vast population whose livelihoods have been affected by the Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric
project. Thousands of communities have been displaced by this massive development, including Chen’s
hometown, and this personal encounter led her to reflect on the disappearance of historical sites and the displacement
of village life. For APT6, Chen will present Xinsheng Town No. 275-277 2009, a reconstructed traditional house that
was demolished for urban development, as well as the video Garden 2007. In this work, Chen combines a theatrical
aesthetic with a studied documentation of flower sellers, who negotiate their existence amid exploding urban
developments in the Three Gorges region. Flowers have an iconic place in Chinese culture, symbolising the fragility of
life and its potential for renewal. Within the grand narrative of China’s social and economic transformation, Chen’s
work considers concepts of place, memory and individual experience.
Exhibitions (solo): University Art Museum, Albany, New York, USA, 2007; Long March Space, Beijing, China, 2006.
Exhibitions (group): Gwangju Biennale, Korea, 2008; ‘China Power Station’, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art,
Oslo, Norway, 2008; ‘The Wall’, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA/China Millennium Art Museum,
Beijing, China, 2005.
CHEO CHAI-HIANG
b.1946 Singapore
Lives and works in Singapore
Cheo Chai-Hiang is one of Singapore’s pioneering contemporary artists. His instruction pieces from the early 1970s
are generally regarded as the first conceptual art works in the country, and his practice since then has consistently
sought to question the forms and processes of art-making. A fundamental interest in Cheo’s work is the relationship
between language and meaning; text, both Chinese and English, has been a recurrent motif in his art over the past
four decades. Cheo’s work for APT6, entitled Cash converter 2009, comprises a series of text-based sculptures in a
range of materials, from stainless steel to neon. The installation will visually reference signage found on the streets of
Singapore, and will draw upon Chinese-language slogans, poetry and wordplay. The work toys with slogans and
phrases that connect with cultural, social and financial changes in Singapore today, using language’s facility to capture
the shifting nature of meaning and information.
Exhibitions (solo): Sculpture Square, Singapore, 2005; Casula Powerhouse, Sydney, Australia, 2000. Exhibitions
(group): Singapore Biennale, 2008; ‘Telah Terbit’ (‘Out Now’), Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2006.