In the days following the earthquake that struck Japan in March, my television consumption increased exponentially. The waters of the subsequent tsunami had barely begun to recede when the television media turned its attention to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, with reporters keeping a steady vigil over its damaged cooling system and waiting for another “event” to occur.
It didn’t happen, but I’m ashamed to admit that I was subconsciously, I now realize, hoping the power plant would explode. I was pining after some graphic and perhaps visceral thrill — the kind of temporal “holy moley!” whose only visual precedent would have been the tragic events in New York a decade ago.
Is waiting in expectation for a disaster to happen, or after it has occurred watching it over and over again on YouTube, evidence of some kind of psychological malady? These thoughts occurred to me as I stood in front of Chang Li-ren’s (張立人) We Did Not Expect Something Like This (我們沒有想到會發生這種事), an installation and video that depicts the explosion of a model nuclear power plant made from paper, and forms part of Don’t Brush Off What You See (不可小覷), an exhibit that scrutinizes the use of power, both literally and figurative.
Photo courtesy of Esther Lu
Curated by Esther Lu (呂岱如), a former Greenpeace activist and current member of the anti-nuclear group Taiwan No Nuke, the show was put together in the months following Japan’s earthquake and is an earnest attempt to merge art and activism.
“In Taiwan artists don’t really have a big voice in society,” Lu said at Tina Keng Gallery’s Dunhua space where the exhibit is located.
“We form an insular group and we only talk about the art world. It’s really boring,” she said. “If we want society to pay more attention to us then we have to do something that interests society.”
Photo courtesy of Chiang Yang-huei
In addition to the works on display, the exhibition includes a Facebook page, a blog (dontbrushoffwhatyousee.blogspot.com) that contains a letter to US President Barack Obama calling on him to embrace alternative energy and lectures on how to get involved (the last of which takes place at Tina Keng on Saturday at 5pm).
At first glance, Chang’s paper model power plant and its firecracker blast seem more of a pop than a bang, the thrill and fear of watching an explosion vanquished by the amateurishness of its execution. Curiously, however, the slow-motion video did something — though I think unintentionally — that an actual event of this magnitude would probably not allow. It afforded me space to think about why I am drawn to these kinds of images and our heavy reliance on these types of energy sources. Just as I’m consumed by the image as I consume it, I thought, so too am I consumed by energy as I consume it.
Whereas Chang’s work depicts a nuclear plant explosion as it’s happening, We Are All Fine (我們一切都好) by Chiang Yang-huei (江洋輝), Tsao Sheng-yen (曹盛彥) and Chen Chao-ru (陳昭汝) presents a psychological portrayal of its aftermath — though rendered through the lens of the positive spin one might expect from government propaganda or a multinational corporation’s promotional material.
Photo courtesy of Chiang Yang-huei
The video depicts a family standing in a verdant field, marshmallow clouds floating past a blue sky, the sound of birds chirping in the background. As the title suggests, everything is fine — radiation sickness, it implies, is something we can live with. As it proceeds, though, it becomes apparent by the open sores on their bodies and the occasional anguished expression on their faces that no twisting of the facts can hide the pain the family feels.
Nuclear meltdown and its aftermath: horrifying possibilities, but are there currently alternatives? Moreover, protesting against the use of nuclear energy seems somewhat disingenuous when the artworks on display benefit from that very power source.
The contradiction, which Lu is consciously aware of, becomes more pointed with Laputa Project(or) (拉普達投影), a slide installation by Fang Yen-hsiang (方彥翔), Lo Shih-tung (羅仕東) and Hsu Chian-yu (徐建宇) that takes aim at the “carbon footprint” of Apple, Google and Facebook.
Popular opinion has it that these technology and Internet companies are benevolent behemoths — think of Google’s battles with China’s censors or Facebook’s role in the Middle East uprisings. The artists see things differently. They focus on the fact that these companies have relocated, or are in the process of relocating, their head offices to North Carolina due to its cheap and plentiful electricity. For the artists, the acquisition and dissemination of information becomes a metaphor for rampant energy use.
Interestingly, the exhibit has its own Facebook account and Lu works on a Mac notebook computer.
“I think it’s unavoidable,” Lu said after I queried her about it. “How many other choices do we have in today’s world? Do we really have the freedom of choice to decide which medium we want to use?”
Valid questions that could be equally applied to
the individual’s use of energy and information — two major sources of power that keep the wheels of contemporary society going. But these questions are barely considered here.
Consequently, the works seem disembodied from the individuals who might walk through the gallery. We are, after all, energy consumers.
That said, Don’t Brush Off What You See is a commendable start and demonstrates potential for the merging of art and activism. Think Tank for a Low Carbon Footage Basin (低碳流域的行動方案) by Plum Tree Creek Environmental Art Action Team (樹梅坑溪環境藝術行動團隊) presents a fascinating look at a collaborative project between activists and artists the aim of which is to clean up a polluted river, and is deserving of its own exhibition.
As I was guided through the exhibition, I wondered aloud if Lu thinks the projects will affect society’s use of energy.
“Even though they probably cannot push the issues forward, they sort of create a different kind of momentum,” she said.
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