Concept Note of Unvarnished Story
The installation Unvarnished Story is a sequence of illustrations that inspired from rare historical photos, and interacts with audiences in a gallery space using augmented reality technique to displaying 3d games and animations that confront social and ethical issues that surround us. Through animation based on art practice, by projecting his thoughts and personal experience on distorted stories, Chen propose new insights and compels audiences to think about the unvarnished beauty and ugliness of the world.
The installation Unvarnished Story is a sequence of illustrations that inspired from rare historical photos, and interacts with audiences in a gallery space using augmented reality technique to displaying 3d games and animations that confront social and ethical issues that surround us. Through animation based on art practice, by projecting his thoughts and personal experience on distorted stories, Chen propose new insights and compels audiences to think about the unvarnished beauty and ugliness of the world.
(a) Title: Segregated Water Fountains
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
The Segregated Water Fountains represents the injustice of treatment to animals. The ‘pet’ water fountain is visibly more luxurious than the ‘food animals’. We can therefore see straight away that the image is simply evidence of controversial inequality. Our human segregates animals to groups for sentimental reasons and consumption purposes and ignores the fact that all are living creatures that share existence with human beings and deserve to be free. This has a metaphorical similarity that reminds us the segregation of black and white people in America during the 1950s. Till today the injustice still existed in our society, more obviously in the criminal trial. The augmented reality animation of Segregated Water Fountains expands the metaphor to a broader topic by showing the prejudice on the external figure that caused a grey color humanoid character wearing "police skin coat" pulled the trigger and shot another grey color humanoid character who wears a "black skin sport suit", despite the fact that their internal characteristics are all the same. The audio was extracted from BBC news “St Louis: Unrest after police killing of teenager”, to give audience more context to the reality.
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Segregated Water Fountains at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6V4o9KcSis
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Segregated Water Fountains at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6V4o9KcSis
(b) Title: Tank Man
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
The illustration Tank Man was created based on an iconic photo Tank Man of Tiananmen, taken by Jeff Widener. The tank man is a lone man who stepped in front of a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, the morning after the huge protest be suppressed that resulted in the deaths of hundreds. Almost 30 years after the incident, the identity and fate of the man remain unclear, but he instantly became a symbol of the protests as well as a symbol of against oppression worldwide. In the illustration, Chen replaced the tanks with excavators, since it is a common tool that authority used to pull down civilian's house without any acknowledgment. The bunny who lives in the bottom of the food chain is a symbol of the vulnerable civilian, and the dogs with camouflage clothing are a symbol of dolls of the authority. The augmented reality animation of Tank Man expands the metaphor to a broader topic by showing a group of humanoid characters wearing "police skin coat" and "camouflage skin coat" pulling down houses of a few unclothing humanoid characters, despite the fact that their internal characteristics are all the same. The audio was extracted from BBC news "Chinese troops fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square", to give audience more context to the reality.
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Tank Man at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKxOycGEQ68
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Tank Man at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKxOycGEQ68
(c) Title: Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
The illustration Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper (one illustration from Chen's installation Unvarnished Story) was inspired from Charles C. Ebbets's photo Lunch atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam), a famous black-and-white photograph taken during construction of 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, New York City, United States. In the illustration I replaced the human workers to animals and replaced the hamburgers with human meat, by doing so, to ask viewer take the animals' point of view to examine, comment on, subvert and interpret the relationships between human and human, and between human and nonhuman. The augmented reality animation expands the metaphor to a broader topic by showing huge human hand feeds and plays a group of humanoid character in a farm. The audio was extracted from "BBC news: North Korea Defense Chief Hyon Yong-chol executed", to give audience more context to the reality.
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpDq5YpzlLw
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpDq5YpzlLw
(d) Title: The Refugee
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
The illustration The Refugee (one illustration from Chen's installation Unvarnished Story) was inspired from a portrait photo of Aisha, an 18-year-old Afghani girl who was sentenced to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws, taken by Jodi Bieber. she instantly became a symbol of the victims of the chaos by war as well as a symbol against oppression. The illustration uses sheep as an icon to show how human oppress animals for consumptions or entertainments, and the augmented reality animation expands the metaphor to a broader topic by showing how people oppress themselves for their own satisfactions. The audio was extracted from "BBC news: Ukraine. Why was Lenin's statue pulled down?", to give audience more context to the reality.
You can watch the augmented reality elements of The Refugee at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoYd05neXrg
You can watch the augmented reality elements of The Refugee at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoYd05neXrg
(e) Title: The Bus
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
The illustration The Bus (one illustration from Chen's installation Unvarnished Story) was inspired from Robert Frank’s photo Trolley New Orleans (1955), a depiction of social degradation resulting from the racial segregation in the mid-fifties. In The Bus, I use animals to show the aspect of how humans have begun to segregate animals according to consumption or pets. The capitalism plays a big role in this and it altered our perception towards this in the modern society. The audio was extracted from "BBC news: Ai Weiwei in Prison", to give audience more context to the reality.
You can watch the augmented reality elements of The Bus at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mde0nXa2D8E
You can watch the augmented reality elements of The Bus at here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mde0nXa2D8E
(f) Title: Survivor of a Death Camp
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Survivor of a Death Camp at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GI8PtgNthk
(g) Title: The Funeral
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
You can watch the augmented reality elements of The Funeral at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E3i9-5hHCE
(h) Title: Baby on the Beach
Year: 2016
Year: 2016
You can watch the augmented reality elements of Baby on the Beach at here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1fSuOut_Jo
