Collection Online
Search the Collection 搜索M+藏品
M+ Sigg Collection, Hong Kong. By donation, © Chen Chieh-jen
On View
Sigg Galleries, 210
Chen Chieh-Jen 陳界仁
Lingchi: Echoes of a Historical Photograph 凌遲考：一張歷史照片的迴音
2002
This film takes its name from lingchi, an ancient form of torture and execution from feudal China known as ‘death by a thousand cuts’. Chen Chieh-Jen interweaves archival photographs and film footage of historical acts of violence, from the ruins of the Summer Palace in Beijing after the Second Opium War in the mid-1800s to remnants of abandoned factories and suffering workers in Taiwan in the 2000s. Chen’s work is a mix of documentary and fiction, employing black-and-white images, long takes, and sparse audio produced by electromagnetic waves from Chen’s skin to reveal death and suppressed trauma. The cruelty may be disturbing to witness, but the work also points towards a conscientious form of resistance against power structures and the forgetting of our collective history.
Loading