Stephen Chen
Land scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW plinary approach is the only way to express and convey the idea you explore .
It is funny you should ask that in the context of THE SCHOOLING OF DESIRE because it was actually my past opera training featured in that piece which made me commit to the multidisciplinary route .
Up until 2008 I was still trying to make it as an opera singer , preparing and going for auditions and competitions . My training had made me capable of producing a big beautiful sound but I was profoundly unhappy . That beautiful voice was not mine ; it was shaped and molded by how others thought I should sound , and what it sang was dictated by what others thought was appropriate for it . It is this same paradox of sensuality and discipline that I worked into THE SCHOOLING OF DESIRE via my operatic voice .
Basically I quit opera when I realized why I was so unhappy . I had lost my voice , both in the physiological and political sense , and surrendered my agency and my most intimate mode of expression to others . The notion of each aesthetic decision was also a political one , shifted from a rather academic and abstract concept into something personal that I embodied .
It was during the process of rediscovering my voice that I realized going multidisciplinary was the way for me ; not just for ideas I want to explore , but who I am as an artist . Previously , I had kept everything separate ( in fact my old work is still on separate websites ) and tried to fit into existing aesthetic structures . Being able to shift between , or even hybridize different modes , expanded the possibilities and complexity of ideas I am able to explore .
When investigating the dialectic and tension between the natural and the man-made you also convey a subtle but effective socio political criticism Your work conveys a subtle but effective criticism concerning the materialistically driven culture that saturate our contemporary age . But while artists from the contemporary scene , as Ai WeiWei or more recently Jennifer Linton , use to express open socio-political criticism in their works , you seem more interested to hint the direction , inviting the viewers to a process of self-reflection that may lead to subvert a variety of usual , almost stereotyped cultural categories . Do you consider that your works could be considered political in a certain sense or did you seek to maintain a more neutral approach ? And in particular , what could be in your opinion the role that an artist could play in the contemporary society ?
I think the sort of Political Art you reference has become a style in itself , which makes it problematic . By being blatantly political , any criticism of the art gets conflated with a criticism of the cause , so concessions are made because the intent was “ correct ” ( not to mention the issue of the vested interests of curators and collectors who benefit from marketing the artist as political ).
The majority of my works are rooted in a political intent , so in that sense they are political . But they are not explicitly so because doing so means you either shut out those who disagree , or preach to the choir ; both of which are passive and untenable positions and do not engender change .