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Arts & Activities, April, 2004 by Marjorie Cohee Manifold

Jin-shiow Chen (b. 1965). The Tension of Site Energy, 2000. Fermented dough on mesh screen, electric lights and warehouse space. Exhibition of Site-Specific Installation Art, Chia Yi Railroad-Alternative Space, Chia Yi City, Taiwan.

ABOUT THIS INSTALLATION

Jin-shiow Chen planned this installation piece for the huge space of an abandoned railway warehouse. She began the work by constructing mesh towers and plastering them with slabs of freshly prepared yeast dough. This initiated processes of transformation. First the dough began to rise or swell from the action of the fermenting yeast. After a few hours, as the dough dried, it shrank back against the mesh and gradually hardened into a cracked shell.

Because yeast is a living organism, it breathes, grows and changes over time. Its resulting scent alters the atmosphere of invisible space through smell--from the sweet smell of fresh bread dough, to a sour smell, a mossy smell, and finally to the rotten odor of spoiled bread. By planning the placement of electric lights and wrapping some dough columns with black plastic, Chen was able to speed up or slow down some of the natural processes of the decay. Therefore, intermingling odors described dough in various stages of growth and decay.

Visitors to the installation were invited to walk among the columns, smell the various odors, and experience the atmosphere of the space. In some places, molds could be observed growing. Textures and colors of drying dough changed over time and lights hung from the ceiling added a warm glow to the scene. Each day the work would appear differently than the day before.

The inevitable process of growth and deterioration presented an undercurrent of energy and undeniable power that filled the installation space. This energy emanated from a medium traditionally associated with nourishing food and nurturing femininity. Yet, over time, it was demonstrated that nourishment could not sustain constant growth in a particular organism. Eventually the dough decayed, dried, cracked and began to flake off the wire-screen supports, which had served as the columns' skeletons. This reminded visitors of the inevitable cycles of life from birth to death to rebirth. After a few weeks the installation was dismantled. All that remained were the photographs taken as documentary evidence.

AESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS

Although Jin-shiow Chen studied art in the United States, her aesthetic philosophy and artistic expressions demonstrate the inculcating influences of her having grown up in rural Taiwan. They also remain in harmony with spiritual traditions of ancient China. Her desire to work with the invisible as well as the visible aspects of imagery reflects traditional Taoist notions of balanced oppositions (Yin and Yang).

Taoism is an ancient Chinese philosophical approach to life. It respects the balance of interactions between visible and invisible, or positive and negative spaces. The invisible elements of Chen's work impress upon the viewer as a tangibly sensual atmosphere. She says: "What I am particularly interested in is not the perceivable materials of the surroundings, but the invisible elements of space, such as bacteria, moisture, dusts, temperature and acids."

In the installation piece The Tension of Site Energy, Chen spread fermented dough over wire-mesh columns to create positive forms. These columns changed as fermenting yeast grew or died, dried out, and decayed over time. While the doughy matter underwent change, it exuded odors and invisible particles that permeated the negative space of the installation. Although these changes were a result of natural processes, Chen found she could assist, encourage, and control some changes by wrapping columns of dough in black plastic to hold in moisture. The audience's impressions of the positive forms and negative spaces of the installation were manipulated by placing colored or incandescent lights strategically throughout the exhibition space.

Chen's installation works also reflect aesthetic notions of Eco-feminism. Her concern for the environment and desire that people treat their environment more kindly comes from observations of the adverse effects industrialization, pollution, the stripping of natural resources, and overpopulation have had upon her native Taiwan. She says: "All this has taken so much from the natural environment. It is hurting it. I want my art to look back to the past and to the less aggressive feminine qualities of nurturing, healing, and harmonious interactions with the environment."

Many of the materials used in Chen's installation pieces, including the yeast dough used in The Tension of Site Energy, remind us of the traditional roles attributed to women. Females have been understood as nurturers of life, who have given birth and nursed their young, prepared family meals, spun, woven, sewn, tended the house and generally attended to the physical needs and emotional wellbeing of their loved ones. Chen used organic materials when creating the forms, or "yang" aspects, of The Tension of Site Energy. Nevertheless, its overarching metaphorical reference is to the feminine, or "yin," aspects of life.