Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), IS THAT ALL THERE IS?  2020

IS THAT ALL THERE IS? considers the environmental impact of global warming. YHCHI often use dark humour to highlight difficult issues. The text and melody of the work are based on the song Is That All There Is?, made popular by singer Peggy Lee in 1969. The fire in the song’s lyrics here becomes a reference to wildfires in California. The question ‘Is That All There Is?’ is repeated again and again, highlighting the lack of personal and political accountability in relation to climate change.

Gallery label, April 2022

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), THE ART OF SLEEP  2006

THE ART OF SLEEP 2006 is an online artwork, a web-based animation in black and white with sound that lasts eighteen and a half minutes. The animation consists of capitalised black text on a white background set to the rhythm of jazz music, a soundtrack which was composed by the artists using software programmes such as GarageBand and Logic Pro. The animation intentionally cannot be paused or toggled through, thereby denying the viewer control and distinguishing the work from many other contemporaneous works of net art which are typically characterised by interactivity and dependence upon viewers’ active participation. THE ART OF SLEEP was originally commissioned to coincide with the frieze art fair in London in 2006 for presentation on Tate’s Intermedia Art micro site – an extension of the main Tate website which was actively updated between 2008 and 2010 and contains an archive of net art projects from 2000 onwards. The project was dedicated to art that not only ‘engages the use of new media, sound and performance’ but addresses ‘art that comments on the social and political implications of new technology and practices that challenge traditional ideas of the art object; including work that is process-driven, participatory or interactive’ (Tate Intermedia Art, ‘About’, http://www2.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/about/, accessed March 2018).

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), THE ART OF SILENCE  2006

THE ART OF SILENCE 2006 is an online artwork, a web-based animation in black and white with sound that lasts just under fourteen minutes. The animation consists of capitalised black text on a white background set to the rhythm of jazz music, a soundtrack which was composed by the artists using software programmes such as GarageBand and Logic Pro. The animation intentionally cannot be paused or toggled through, thereby denying the viewer control and distinguishing the work from many other contemporaneous works of net art which are typically characterised by interactivity and dependence upon viewers’ active participation. The work is a companion piece to another web-based animation, THE ART OF SLEEP 2006 (Tate T15753) which was originally commissioned to coincide with the frieze art fair in London in 2006 for presentation on Tate’s Intermedia Art micro site – an extension of the main Tate website which was actively updated between 2008 and 2010 and contains an archive of net art projects from 2000 onwards. The project was dedicated to art that not only ‘engages the use of new media, sound and performance’ but addresses ‘art that comments on the social and political implications of new technology and practices that challenge traditional ideas of the art object; including work that is process-driven, participatory or interactive’ (Tate Intermedia Art, ‘About’, http://www2.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/about/, accessed March 2018).

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), TRAILER  2010

TRAILER 2010 is a text-based work that was originally presented as a projection in the exhibition YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010. The narrative texts alternate between English and Korean and are accompanied by a dramatic soundtrack of Jazz-style music composed by the artists. They tell the story of a confrontation between two people, one of whom shoots the other in the wrist before demanding he be shot in the forehead. While the English text tells the story in a coherent manner, the Korean text appears only intermittently, consisting of fragments of phrases and loaded words such as ‘eroticism’, ‘sex’ and ‘attractive proposal’. The title of the work alludes to the dramatic conventions of cinema even though this ‘trailer’ has no images.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), TEASER  2010

TEASER juxtaposes images and texts with a soundtrack on a tilted LCD screen and incorporates slogans drawn from film advertisements such as ‘THE CONTROVERSIAL NEW MASTERPIECE THAT EVERYONE’S TALKING ABOUT’. The title makes reference to the way film advertising catches the viewer’s imagination and promises an exciting experience. It was originally shown in the exhibition YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES at Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010.

Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (Young-Hae Chang, Marc Voge), YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES  2010

YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES PRESENTS: DOWN IN FUKUOKA WITH THE BELARUSIAN BLUES is a text-based work that was originally shown on a tilted LCD screen in the shop window of Gallery Hyundai in Seoul in 2010. It formed part of the exhibition of the same name by the artistic collective Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries. Both in its positioning on the street, and in the content of its message, the work announced the exhibition to visitors and passers-by.