Chen Chieh-jen:
Detoxify Illusion with Māyā (III)
Duration: 23 SEPTEMBER 12:00 AM
- 22 OCTOBER 11:59 AM (CST), 2023
For Chen Chieh-jen, confronting the empire’s pervasive control technology demands a reevaluation of fundamental issues in human society, including the concept of “illusion.” To address this, Chen Chieh-jen draws on the Buddhist perspective of “māyā” (illusion) to unravel the empire’s construction of illusion. Māyā refers to the notion of all things being in a state of constant flux. It is the operating principle and reason why all things unite, form, exist, decay and pass away. Understanding this notion, one realizes that all things come from interdependence and interaction, or what the Buddha called Tathatā. The Buddha’s primary concern in presenting this dialectical view was to break down the caste system that had been constructed by the Brahmin class through a vast mythological narrative. By pointing out that nothing has an absolute, unchanging nature, the Buddha is saying that sentient beings (all species included) are equal, and no distinctions can be made concerning blood, race, or culture.
Chen Chieh-jen’s invocation of the Buddhist concept of māyā aims to deconstruct the empire’s naturalized neocolonial / new caste system in pursuit of a vision of future in which all beings are equal. In terms of cultural and artistic production, the key is not whether the content of the work is accurate or fictional, or in the choice of the media employed, but in whether it opens up various pathways to an egalitarian society under the neo-colonial / neo-caste system.
About the Artist
Chen Chieh-jen was born in 1960 in Taoyuan, and currently lives and works in Taipei. While Chen’s primary media is video installation, in his production process, he has consistently experimented with community formation, integrating other participants with his film crew. This has added an activist quality directed at re-envisioning society in his creative process.
During Taiwan’s martial law period (1949–1987), a time marked by the Cold War, Chen employed extra-institutional underground exhibitions and guerrilla-style art actions to challenge dominant political mechanisms. After martial law ended, Chen gradually ceased making art, which lasted for eight years. Returning to art in 1996, Chen started collaborating with local residents, unemployed laborers, day workers, migrant workers, foreign spouses, unemployed youth and social activists. They occupied factories owned by capitalists and utilized discarded materials to build sets for his video productions. In order to visualize contemporary reality and a people’s history that has been obscured by neoliberalism, Chen embarked on a number of video projects in which he used strategies he calls “re-imagining, renarrating, re-writing and re-connecting.”
Starting in 2010, Chen began actively focusing on the fact that many people around the world have been reduced to working temporary jobs and lost sense of existence due to and lost sense of existence due to the corporatocracy’s pervasive control technology. Chen calls this universal situation “global imprisonment” or “at-home exile.” Based on these ruminations, Chen has considered how pervasive control technology can be qualitatively changed by transforming desire with alternative forms of desire and detoxifying illusion with māyā.
Chen Chieh-jen:
Detoxify Illusion with Māyā (III)
Duration: 23 SEPTEMBER 12:00 AM
- 22 OCTOBER 11:59 AM (CST), 2023
For Chen Chieh-jen, confronting the empire’s pervasive control technology demands a reevaluation of fundamental issues in human society, including the concept of “illusion.” To address this, Chen Chieh-jen draws on the Buddhist perspective of “māyā” (illusion) to unravel the empire’s construction of illusion. Māyā refers to the notion of all things being in a state of constant flux. It is the operating principle and reason why all things unite, form, exist, decay and pass away. Understanding this notion, one realizes that all things come from interdependence and interaction, or what the Buddha called Tathatā. The Buddha’s primary concern in presenting this dialectical view was to break down the caste system that had been constructed by the Brahmin class through a vast mythological narrative. By pointing out that nothing has an absolute, unchanging nature, the Buddha is saying that sentient beings (all species included) are equal, and no distinctions can be made concerning blood, race, or culture.
Chen Chieh-jen’s invocation of the Buddhist concept of māyā aims to deconstruct the empire’s naturalized neocolonial / new caste system in pursuit of a vision of future in which all beings are equal. In terms of cultural and artistic production, the key is not whether the content of the work is accurate or fictional, or in the choice of the media employed, but in whether it opens up various pathways to an egalitarian society under the neo-colonial / neo-caste system.
About the Artist
Chen Chieh-jen was born in 1960 in Taoyuan, and currently lives and works in Taipei. While Chen’s primary media is video installation, in his production process, he has consistently experimented with community formation, integrating other participants with his film crew. This has added an activist quality directed at re-envisioning society in his creative process.
During Taiwan’s martial law period (1949–1987), a time marked by the Cold War, Chen employed extra-institutional underground exhibitions and guerrilla-style art actions to challenge dominant political mechanisms. After martial law ended, Chen gradually ceased making art, which lasted for eight years. Returning to art in 1996, Chen started collaborating with local residents, unemployed laborers, day workers, migrant workers, foreign spouses, unemployed youth and social activists. They occupied factories owned by capitalists and utilized discarded materials to build sets for his video productions. In order to visualize contemporary reality and a people’s history that has been obscured by neoliberalism, Chen embarked on a number of video projects in which he used strategies he calls “re-imagining, renarrating, re-writing and re-connecting.”
Starting in 2010, Chen began actively focusing on the fact that many people around the world have been reduced to working temporary jobs and lost sense of existence due to and lost sense of existence due to the corporatocracy’s pervasive control technology. Chen calls this universal situation “global imprisonment” or “at-home exile.” Based on these ruminations, Chen has considered how pervasive control technology can be qualitatively changed by transforming desire with alternative forms of desire and detoxifying illusion with māyā.
