text by Tang Huang-Chen
Tang Huang-Chen's "I Go Travelling", a long-term interdisciplinary creation, encompassing sociology and linguistics, consists of ten projects produced over the course of 15 years, starting with "You Talk, I'll Listen" in 1999 and concluding with "Epitaph" in 2013.
The author chose the act of travel to encapsulate her sojourning activities, this ordinary, complicated, and paradoxical behavior of the 21st century, to serve as an allegory of sorts. Travel today is characterized by sharing, communication, and interaction in both the abstract and physical senses and involves exchange, displacement, reflection, and pursuit of an unattainable changing ambiguity.
If the goals of "I Go Travelling" are language and expression—undying desires of humanity, then Tang Huang-Chen's vision, travels, search, and return home settled deep into her memory and serve as an anchor for her self-identity and consciousness as well as a glance back at life's terminus. Much like the adventures of Ulysses in the Greek tale The Odyssey, our protagonist is no victorious hero, just a wanderer who wants to return home. Pendulum swings between human will and the fickle finger of fate produce a faceoff between the vicissitudes of life and the awakening of conscious, so that in the end, the return home marks the launching of a voyage of a different kind. In much the same way that the narrative drifts from adventure to adventure, continually striving toward the goal, but drifting off course time and time again, there is no necessary language structure, but there is an undying desire to communicate. The pendulum that swings between human psyche and the search for words produces a confrontation between the continual changes of life and awakening of conscious, so that in the end, words fail to express what she wants to say.
Spanning 15 years, Tang Huang-Chen's project stirs up ideas of travel--an allegorical behavior of the 21st century, leading to mental adventures of art that include observation, imagining, interpretation, and an awareness of the human predicament. The process of artistic creation, from contemplation to interpretation, from conceptualization to expression, is a constant challenge of self… an act that can be compared to sailing against the wind. In the end, she employed the Ulysses Machine of 2014~2015 to produce a narrative journey characterized by vicissitudes of life that is unmatched in the way it touches the soul.
The ten groups of videos are interconnected and divided according to the three places in which changes occurred and then once again reintegrated as a whole as a machine: the "Ulysses Machine".
During the exhibition, the Ulysses Machine is a black box type unit that serves as a viewing area for one person at a time (dimensions: W:150cm x L:170cm x H:230cm) with a door or entrances on more than one side. There are access aisles between units, allowing visitors to choose the route they want to take and which units to stop in and view.
Artist Tang Huang-Chen (the original narrator) incorporated "I Go Travelling", a piece which consists of ten works completed between 1999 and 2013, into her 2014-2015 Ulysses Machine to form a series of extended audiovisual relationships showing her 15-year creative journey.
Visitors that enter the Ulysses Machine alternate between the expression and understanding, with concepts being built up and others shattered. They set off on new journeys and experience course reversals much like Homer's Ulysses did as he strove to find his way home.
The Ulysses Machine, which is both multimedia equipment and part of the performance, is being shown at a specially designated time. As the performance progresses, visitors can choose for themselves when they "enter" and "exit" the machine. The performance consists of climaxes of expression and complex layers interpreted through language, sound, visuals, physical actions, and performance. In I Go Travelling, Tang Huang-Chen followed closely in the steps of Ulysses who chose to opted for a life of mortality rather than become a god, knowing that the brevity of life is the very thing that makes us cherish it. The 21st century is characterized by the flow of infinite amounts of information as well as by multimedia, high tech, and movement. Faced with these challenges, how are we to find our way home?
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Exhibition
Art 8: May 24~July 5, 2014
Performances
June 7 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
June 28 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
Discussions
June 7 (Sat.) First discussion 15:20~17:30
6/28 (Sat.) Second discussion 15:20~17:30
Exhibition
Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei
September 13~October 19, 2014
Performances
September 27 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
October 18 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
Discussion
September 27 (Sat.) Third discussion 15:20~17:30
October 18 (Sat.) Fourth discussion 15:20~17:30
Exhibition
Museum of National Taipei University of Education
April 7~May 10, 2015
Performances
April 25 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
May 2 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
May 9 (Sat.) 14:30~15:10
Discussion
April 25 (Sat.) Fifth discussion 15:20~17:30
May 2 (Sat.) Sixth discussion 15:20~17:30
May 9 (Sat.) Seventh discussion 15:20~17:30
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