The City of Battle 1.1─ A Solo Show by Chang, Li-Ren
Date: June 20-July 29, 2011
Monday through Friday 10am-7pm
Venue: 1st F, Taishin Tower (No. 118, Sec 4, Ren-ai Rd. , Taipei, Taiwan)
“Nowadays, anything can turn into a product, regardless of our life, love, environment, battle, or even anti-capitalism itself; in the presence of the almost violent capital civilization, everything seems to be about a matter of taste.”
The exhibition“City of Battle1.1”originated from the finalist of the 8th Taishin Visual Art Award, Chang, Li-Ren’s solo exhibition, “The City of Battle” in 2010. Chang applied a programming system as an analogy to reflect the mainstream vortex within the capitalist society, in order to further express the insignificance of him as an individual being outside of the system, as well as his residing country and its survival course.
As a young generation Taiwanese contemporary artist, Chang reproduces realistic images through employing daily materials and techniques to epitomize that our living city exists as a programmed system, and one has to enter oneself into the system in order to be regarded as an essential part of the city. This piece was made based on the “city story” which Chang constructed; it also intends to compose a legend for those groups that somehow do not fit into general social expectations. Via reproduced video and installation, the piece expresses how engrossed people are in the idea that they are an expected and needed member of the capitalist society, and intentionally ignore the conflict and absurdity of “the battling city” which they are in.
Chang, Li-Ren
Born in 1983 in Taichung, Chang, Li-Ren is currently doing his Masters in Plastic Arts at Tainan National University of The Arts. His works involves various technical aspects, such as digital, mechanical, and handcrafted techniques. In the course of his artistic development, his concerns and intentions always seem to reach far beyond the typical visual artists’scope.
