Rootless

Curator：Luo Fei

Artist: Ching Ching Cheng(USA/Tai Wan)
Opening Reception：2011.9.10, 20:00
Duration：2011.9.10 – 9.26
Location：TCG Nordica, Loft, Xiba Road No.101, Kunming
Tel：4114691

Artist Talk: The Economics of Contemporary Art — Branded Auctions
Time：2011.9.16. 20:00-21:00
Location：943 Space, A Zone, Loft•JinDing 1919, North Jinding Shan Road No.15, Kunming
Tel：5385159
In cooperating with: TCG Nordica, 943 Space, Loft· 金鼎1919

Forward by Luo Fei

Cheng Ching Ching’s grandfather was born in Beijing. He moved to Taiwan during World War II 65 years ago. Ching Ching was born in Taiwan, and moved to the United States to study art and design in 2003. Now Ching Ching is living and working in the United States. Because of historical and personal encounters, her grandfather moved from Mainland China to Taiwan; she moved from Taiwan to the United States; and now as an artist, from the United States to Kunming for the artist-in-residency program at 943 Studio. The experience of migration in her family, and the cultural gap, confliction and intervention makes her interested in finding out more about her own culture.

Ching Ching studied art in the United States, and she practices art in many different ways. She works digitally, traditionally and also three-dimensionally. She always challenges herself through drawing, solving problems and difficult ideas. Ching Ching likes to experiment with different techniques and mediums. Most of her work is mixed media using ink, watercolor, gouache and acrylic. The color of her work is very subtle and quiet. In particular, I like the vintage camera and gramophone series, which are made from old books. Through cutting and gluing old books together page by page to reform objects, Ching Ching is able to explore a subject through meditation on personal and emotion level. This makes Ching Ching’s art special. It is romantic, subtle, quiet and generous. She makes everyday objects into a symbol of her personal experiences and her cultural background.

Ching Ching’s work is cohesive. Most of the images have a clear and full silhouette, and those silhouettes are loaded with personal feelings, ideas and stories are flowing and flying in the form of lines and shapes. As well as her watercolor, it looks like brilliant colors of roots and feathers in nature. All of them become emotions and poetry.

There are four artworks for this exhibition, and they were made with local materials found by Ching Ching’s during her three-month residency in Kunming. The house is called “Rootless Restaurant.”  It is related to fortune cookies, which is modified Chinese culture in America. There are fate, success and blessings hidden inside real moments of life.

The second piece is about food. Ching Ching uses many different types of food as pigment to paint on different shaped and sized paper bowls. The paper bowls line up on a big table, and a hidden interactive sound installation will give the audience a chance to remember or discover memories of cooking in the kitchen.

The third piece is calligraphy in watercolor. Those characters with a clear sense of national identity, such as “country”, “home”, and “love.” This series explores the change from Traditional and Simplified Chinese and its meaning.

The last work is an installation of fingerprint stamp. In Chinese culture, personal stamps represent the written signatures in Western culture. Ching Ching is living in both cultures and using both forms of a signature. The thumbprint of the artist can act as the signature stamp transcending cultural differences?

Ching Ching’s work lets us explore the immigrant culture. Viewers can add in their personal feelings and experiences to think about their cultures, their fates and their roots through these interactive installations. Where do we belong? Is Nationalism the ultimate answer?

Sep 2, 2011