CIGE 2009 Public Art Project

After the successful collaboration with artist Yang Jun (Vitamin Creative Space) in 2008, this year CIGE invites Peng Hung Chih (Soka Art Center) and Yan Lei (Tang Contemporary Art) to host the public art projects.

Peng Hung Chih (Soka Art Center)

Peng Hung Chih
Little Danny - Made in Austria
660 dog toys, metal, power supply, consor
L 380 mm x W 170 mm x H 260 mm
2001

Little Danny - Made in Austria
On entry visitors were confronted with an eight foot puppy made up of 660 wind-up Little Danny dogs, which began yapping and turning their heads as someone entered the room. Do the viewer's footsteps control the triggers, or is it the artist controlling them? Filling almost the entire space, the shock brought some visitors to tears, crying in fright, but most laughed. Described by the artist as a 'mechanical spirit', Little Danny humorously plays with ideas of reality, but also of where we look. In its overwhelming size and noise, with the cacophony of tinny barking, it defies taking in the whole in a moment. The small dogs coalesce into one, but on closer inspection each mass-produced Danny is somehow individual.

Artist Statement
I constantly work with dogs; they give me freedom. They can not be controlled but they could be trained. They are animal driven by simple desires but they could also be spiritual. Their simplicity is pure, yet many layers of myths could be unfolded by working with them.

I seek to not to limit myself to depicting dogs but also presenting the world from a dog's perspective. I intend to pose questions of social structure, cultural phenomena, identity, and hierarchical relationship between, animal, human and God. To examine these questions, I carry out my works in the persona of dog though different methods and formats. In this rigorous and yet diverse creative process, it is all in hope to provide an insight to the world through different eyes.


Yan Lei (Tang Contemporary Art)


Yan Lei (Tang Contemporary Art)
Eternal Value
Diamond, neon lights, steel
2009