Invasive Species - Vegetables
Chen Hangfeng
陈航峰
Production date
2010
Object Detail
Media
photos and text on lightboxes, LED screens, controllers
Measurements
11 screens, dimensions variable
Notes
Chen’s fascination with the concept of ‘invasive species’, whether literal (he has worked on art projects about the Chinese carp, and Japanese knockweed) or metaphorical (the worldwide proliferation of American fast food) has played out across a number of distinct works and long-term projects in different media. Invasive Species: Vegetables is a witty installation of photographs on lightboxes in which the characters of the mythological ‘Eight Immortals’ are played by vegetables engaged in a raunchy conversation in a Shanghai communal garden of the kind that city officials had declared to be illegal. Each box lights up in turn as the vegetables ‘speak’. Like many of Chen’s deceptively simple works, Invasive Species: Vegetables references ancient Chinese traditional tales, the bawdiness of Shanghainese theatrical traditions, and courageously stubborn acts of civil disobedience in the face of officialdom.
Accession number
2011.015