Thisistomorrow on Jen Liu's performance and installation at the Singapore Biennial

"Jen Liu’s installation of sculptures and paintings alongside three videos presents a shattering alternative to Lek’s Sino-futurism. The upward path of labouring Chinese populace as the motor of the over-developed world’s consumerism is viciously satirised by Liu, who shows a dancer performing to Mao era patriotic songs extolling the virtues of female labour. As the ballerina spins, her feet literally grind the bones of bourgeois consumerism to dust while on the facing screen we see the same performers guide us through the grisly operations of an abattoir. The centre piece of ‘Pink Slime Caesar Shift’ is a gold painted room in which Liu on video stages a mock human resources meeting in which contemporary women workers are forced to accept degrading infringements of their human rights. ‘Once upon a time the workers were the masters’ one of Liu’s character’s protests to no avail. The artist presents us with a computer generated future fantasy that is the equal of Lek’s for its glossy seduction but here is horrifying in its consequence. Liu envisions a future where the employees are subject to ‘biolistics’ where gold is used to manipulate DNA, a project that recalls the horrifying experiments of 20th century racist scientists."

 

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Publication date: 28 Jan '20