Happy Valentine's Day!!
Tu Wei-Cheng
涂維政
Production date
2011
Object Detail
Media
plastic, glass, timber, paint, metal, screen printed walls, adhesive vinyl
Measurements
700 x 700 cm
Notes
Tu Wei-Cheng’s recurring theme of simulated reality is evident in ‘Happy Valentine’s Day!!’, an installation in which the sense of smell is first tantalised and then repelled: the aroma of chocolate wafts out of what seems at first to be an old-fashioned confectionery shop. Shelves and counters display heart-shaped boxes with pink satin bows, and an array of enticingly packaged chocolates. On closer inspection the ‘chocolates’ turn out to be in the shape of weapons, hand grenades and tanks – the machinery of war. And they are made of plastic, not chocolate. The smell is created by a chemical sprayed into the air. Tu Wei-Cheng explores how menace and aggression can lie beneath love and romance, in a veiled message about the tense relationship between his birthplace of Taiwan and Mainland China.
Accession number
2012.081