PROJECT SPACE / 28 September to 25 October 2012
Presented as part of Experimenta Speak to Me, 5th International Biennial of media art
Seoul-based artists YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES will present a will present a series of work never seen before in Australia. Making use of their signature text based animation style, set to original soundtracks, the works will be presented together as a series in a format resembling a 60 minute concert.
Seoul-based artists YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (YHCHI) occupy a unique place in the art world, being amongst the first artists to employ the Internet as a platform in the mid- 1990s.
For this exhibition at RMIT Project Space/Spare Room, the artists are presenting a number of works never seen before in Australia and includes the works LOVER BABY, I’M ON FIRE (2012), THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES (BROOKLYN VERSION) (2011-2012), HOLLYWOOD CENTRE (2011), WARNING: FOR LAUGHS ONLY, NO SOCIALLY REDEEMING VALUE (2011), MY PRETTY PEACENIK (2010) and CIGARETTES, SOJU, CUP NOODLES (2012.)
Making use of YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES signature text based animation style, these works are set to original syncopated soundtracks composed by the artists and are presented together as a series, in a format to be experienced as a 60 minute concert.
The work of YHCHI is accessible in its design and use of technology. Almost didactic in its delivery, and minimising the use of graphics, photos and colour, their text-based work is most commonly delivered with punchy black Monaco typeface on stark white backgrounds. Made in disparate locations around the world, their works can be placed in the context of literary genres such as concrete poetry and also extend out to cinematic references such as film noir.
Their work displays an almost voluptuous enjoyment and immersion in language, offering witty and astute social and political commentary. Variation and inflection in their work is produced through the juxtaposition of language, the timing of the text as it moves across the screen and its relationship with the soundtrack. The narratives often move at a rapid-fire pace, almost too fast to read. This strategy creates a desire – goading us to catch the fleeting narrative – but also articulates a sense of an elusive and shifting perspective, a sensibility compounded by the artists’ use of multiple languages. Their use of the Internet as a primary means of distribution of their artwork provides a direct and unmediated engagement with their audience.
This exhibition is a part of Experimenta Speak to Me, Fifth International Biennial of Media Art. Taking place in a number of venues throughout Melbourne CBD, the biennial features Australian and international artists and brings together works that offer multiple perspectives on how we form connections with others and negotiate intimacy in our lives.
Abigail Moncrieff
Curator, Experimenta
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES is yhchang.com. It is also Young-hae Chang (South Korea) and Marc Voge (United States). Based in Seoul, YHCHI has done its signature animated text set to their own music in 20 languages and shown much of it at some of the major art institutions in the world, including Tate, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and the Whitney Museum and New Museum, New York. Chang and Voge are 2012 Rockefeller Bellagio Creative Arts Fellows.
The central exhibition of Experimenta Speak to Me is at key presenter RMIT Gallery, from 14 September until 17 November 2012. The exhibition ranges across a number of exhibition sites across Melbourne, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) Gallery 2, Faculty Gallery Monash University, Federation Square, National Gallery Victoria International (NGV), RMIT Project Space/Spare Room, SIGNAL, Sofitel Melbourne on Collins, The Wheeler Centre: Books, Writing, Ideas and public spaces across the CBD. Following its Melbourne launch, the exhibition will tour across Australia over two years.
YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES are guests of the RMIT School of Art international Artist in Residence Program—SITUATE.