residency project (Cemeti Art House/Yogyakarta/Indonesia) 2015
video installation
Through his work, Chen Chia-Jen speaks about situations that he often encounters in modern cities in many countries. As a foreigner who is always travelling and living in places for short periods, he wanted to compare his experiences in the places he has visited. At the beginning of his stay in Yogya, Chen was impressed with the horizontal city landscape where few buildings have several stories, so the sky is clearly visible from everywhere. The mobility of residents and the traffic system which relies on surface level roads completes this horizontal experience.
Chen is also interested in observing the activities of residents who live on the edges of rivers in large cities and visited a number of rivers in Yogya. At one point he visited the Opak River near Parangtritis Beach and encountered several locals working as sand miner. The activities of the workers at the bottom of the river piqued his curiosity about what was happening under the river water. The curiosity encouraged his fantasies about sand as the original source of the city. His horizontal experience even confronted
a contrast when he observed the movements of the sand miners against the river stream. He turned this findings into video works to be presented as an installation in the gallery space.
video installation
Through his work, Chen Chia-Jen speaks about situations that he often encounters in modern cities in many countries. As a foreigner who is always travelling and living in places for short periods, he wanted to compare his experiences in the places he has visited. At the beginning of his stay in Yogya, Chen was impressed with the horizontal city landscape where few buildings have several stories, so the sky is clearly visible from everywhere. The mobility of residents and the traffic system which relies on surface level roads completes this horizontal experience.
Chen is also interested in observing the activities of residents who live on the edges of rivers in large cities and visited a number of rivers in Yogya. At one point he visited the Opak River near Parangtritis Beach and encountered several locals working as sand miner. The activities of the workers at the bottom of the river piqued his curiosity about what was happening under the river water. The curiosity encouraged his fantasies about sand as the original source of the city. His horizontal experience even confronted
a contrast when he observed the movements of the sand miners against the river stream. He turned this findings into video works to be presented as an installation in the gallery space.