Shu Lea Cheang(鄭淑麗) is an artist of complexity. From her appearance, she seems like an artist with a statement to make -- shaved head, T-shirt and massive platform shoes. But in her works she says "throw away the boundaries and enjoy the pleasure."
You may find her films very New York avant garde -- multi-cultural and multi-sexual -- but she is very Taiwanese, albeit one who speaks extremely standard Mandarin.
At the on-going Women Make Waves film festival, Cheang's charm was proven in Taipei once again during the screening of her new feature IKU. What she describes as a Japanese sci-fi porn caused droves of people to flood the main Eslite Bookstore last Friday. The diverse crowd included foreigners and locals, art-lovers and people who were just curious about the titillating plot -- all were ready to indulge in the glamor of hi-tech visualization and, of course, the abundance of sex scenes.
PHOTO: LIBERTY TIMES
Although she holds a history degree from National Taiwan University, the Taiwan-born woman has been making her way as a visual artist and filmmaker in New York since the early 80s. Her 1999 installation "Brandon: A One Year Narrative Project in Installments" is part of the permanent collection at New York's Guggenheim Museum. During the past five years, Cheang has become something of a digital nomad, traveling around Japan, Europe and New York with her Internet art works and films. IKU is a product of such traveling. "It is not hard-core, but I do want people to get turned on" Cheang says.
The idea for IKU came from a Japanese producer. From start to finish, it took a year of on-location shooting in Tokyo. IKU -- played by a Blade Runner -like android -- represents an electronic, technical age in which sex can be downloaded. "Our body can be a hard drive. And every time you have a sex encounter, it is like you take in orgasm data and store it in the body. The next time you release it and use it again. So the body is like a mechanical container," Cheang says.
The concept of sex in the sci-fi world is only one element of the film. There are also Japanese Manga-like settings, colorful pictures, scenes accented with electronic music and real adult video actresses playing starring roles. "IKU made so much sense to make in Tokyo," she says, perhaps because in the end, IKU seems to have combined all the stereotypical Japanese fads so well.
Although Tokyo has certain kinds of restrictions and censorship, in a way it is probably the most outrageously open society when it comes to sex, Cheang says. Particularly when one considers the thriving sex industry and the diverse club culture. In the making of the film Cheang recruited porn stars, club performers and VJs, and sex workers to be her collaborators, making the filming process itself an adventure.
But Cheang asks audiences not to be too "otaku" -- which describes the West's exotic stereotyping of Japanese culture. In presenting the Japanese glams, she also attempted to counter that expectation by adding provocative, non-mainstream scenes, including homosexual sex, transsexual sex and virtual sex. "When you make a porn they would ask you what kind of sex is it. Is it gay porn lesbian porn or straight porn? But in IKU they all come together. It's a sex for sex film," she says.
Sex always seems to be the central theme in Cheang's films and art works. Beginning in New York in the late 70s, Cheang says her work started by exploring the persona of the Asian woman. "If you don't want to be categorized as the submissive Asian woman as stereotyped in the Western world, then you would be easily labeled to another extreme, which is the wild girl," she says. "I've been through both so I try to project sex as enjoyable and also as no guilt."
The combination of race and sex is generally reflected in Cheang's earlier works. Color Scheme (1989), used a laundry machine to signify the US as a race melting pot. Sexfish (1993), and Sexbowl (1994), juxtaposed images of lesbian sex with those of swimming fish and bowling.
However, after shifting her focus outside New York and onto the Internet, her creations have moved away from so-called Queer Politics. "My works are still very much politically oriented," she says. But here the politics is obviously different from what people usually imagine.
For her, making porno films as a woman is a political statement. Despite this, however, Cheang never forgets about bringing visual pleasure to her audience. "I really want the film to be a turn-on, which is a most important thing for me. I'm not making this film to express my political ideas although I believe it has my political views. But I'd rather you don't see it."
Cheang doesn't plan to make this her last foray into the world of porn. She already has her next project lined up: a hard-core porn filmed in Denmark.
For your information:
Shu Lea Cheang's films are showing in the Women Make Waves fest until May 28th. To find out more about her work, go to http://brandon.guggenheim.
org/shuleaWORK and http://www.I-K-U.com
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