Sidi Chen, One's Life Pursue Is What the City Consumes, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper fixed with door handle, screws, and ice in baking tray, 6.35 x 22.22 x 28.57 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Imprisoned in the Block of My Own Building, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper with staples on reclaimed panel, 10.16 x 20.32 x 24.765 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Power Is Power's Demonstration, Terror Is Terror's Skeleton, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper sewed with artist's hair, 10.16 x 30.48 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Stray Dogs Choke On Collars, 2019, photo installation (inkjet print on semigloss photo paper) with zip ties, 35.56 x 40.64 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Drowning in the Depth of My Ascending, 2019, photo installation (inkjet print on semigloss photo paper) with cotton threads, needle, fishing wire, and balloons, 76.20 x 76.20 x 128.27 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, My Skin Aches For the Befouled Colors, 2019, photo collage on reclaimed clear film and found rope, 15.24 x 15.24 x 40.64 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, One's Life Pursue Is What the City Consumes, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper fixed with door handle, screws, and ice in baking tray, 6.35 x 22.22 x 28.57 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Imprisoned in the Block of My Own Building, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper with staples on reclaimed panel, 10.16 x 20.32 x 24.765 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Power Is Power's Demonstration, Terror Is Terror's Skeleton, 2019, inkjet print on semigloss photo paper sewed with artist's hair, 10.16 x 30.48 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Stray Dogs Choke On Collars, 2019, photo installation (inkjet print on semigloss photo paper) with zip ties, 35.56 x 40.64 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, Drowning in the Depth of My Ascending, 2019, photo installation (inkjet print on semigloss photo paper) with cotton threads, needle, fishing wire, and balloons, 76.20 x 76.20 x 128.27 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Sidi Chen, My Skin Aches For the Befouled Colors, 2019, photo collage on reclaimed clear film and found rope, 15.24 x 15.24 x 40.64 cm. Courtesy of the artist.
Selected
Blank Occupation
Postponed | Virtual
Please note that this exhibition is postponed until further notice to ensure the health and safety of our community and to flatten the curve of COVID-19.
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To view more images of the online exhibition, and/or to have a phone call with the artist, Sidi Chen from April 2–13 between 2–3 pm visit www.sidichen.com.
Blank Occupation is an ongoing site-specific investigation using fully- or partially-wrapped architectures as a critical lens to probe into the relationship between the process of urbanization and the population who are purposefully and consequentially marginalized, such as low-income residents, foreign labourers, the homeless, and other groups who are the most vulnerable in the capitalist construct.
Macroscopically, the urban landscape of construction is transient yet everlasting, and such a duality roots on the irreconcilable conflict between the developmental demands of capitalism and people’s survival needs to rely on its systematic exploitation. However, the wrapped structures also resemble and reflect on the micro-communities who are erased, silenced, repressed, diminished, disrupted, and disconnected. Therefore, by examining the life conditions (physical, emotional, cultural, and spiritual) of such populations, I want to rethink and to discuss the priorities of urbanism under the capitalist framework, and ultimately to raise the question: How can we sustain, recharge, and change the system whilst relying on its abuses to survive?
Thus, I’ve purposefully removed the colours from the photo documentations taken through the on-site research. With such removals, not only did I want to emphasize the disconnections between the structures and the people but also to invite the viewers to reimagine the possibilities of the city life. Also, I’ve used the accuracy of poetry as the organizing principle to create photo installations with reclaimed and repurposed objects to echo to each verse that is composed of the vocabularies from intuitions and found on-site. With the visual-poetry installation, I want to explore the boundaries and intersections of the lens language and literatures to further consider the transdisciplinary possibilities in the visual practice.
