Eugene Tang

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Graduates

SAIC SHOWS 2023 GRADUATE EXHIBITIONS

Master of Fine Arts in Studio, Photography

itang4daa.myportfolio.com/work

Eugene Tang is an artist whose work shows particular social patterns through his personal life experience and intriguing encounters. He works across conceptual photography, video/sound installation, and sculpture to create a voyeuristic experience in domestic-like space. With a background in anthropology and commercial photography, he draws influence from queer study, instrumentalism, and desire.

Eugene Tang - System As a Historical Contingency

System As a Historical Contingency, 2021, Sculpture, 240 x 150 x 150 cm., Photo by Eugene Tang

System Is a Historical Contingency is an iteration of Tang’s artistically sculpturing practice of deconstructing the definition of ‘system’, and the inspirations and objects are based on Renovating Kinship - the possibility of practicing coexistence, the documentary project. He uses the objects which are regarded as construction elements, destructioning and reconstructing them, to create his own system. Along with the deconstruction of the materials, the artwork(i.e. system) becomes more and more complicated and imbalanced. Tang then expands the narrative bouncing back and forth to his own experiences of being excluded by systems, relationships, and interrogating the social system. He gives a narrative of the historical contingency of the system building in human society “Are we keeping building a better system? Or are we all working on sophisticated peripherals?”

Reframing Documentary, 2021, Oce print, inkjet print, found objects, 250 x 250 cm., Photo by Eugene Tang

This project is based on documentary photography and anthropological field research. I bring up the discussion of family combinations, support systems, and non-biological kinship between different generations. Meanwhile, I also document how neoliberalism affects this kind of relationship in their societal life practice.

Ghosts in the Stalls, 2022, inkjet print, print 56 x 42 inches

I spent four months visiting 14 different bathrooms known as ‘cruising spots’ in downtown Chicago. These bathrooms are often in highly trafficked public places within shopping centers and public libraries, and known amongst ‘cruisers’ through word of mouth. Public sex in these spaces is seen as a crime. In these spaces, I photograph the toilets. My camera captures the ghosts and haunting that happen within the stalls.

Eugene Tang - A fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights

A fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights, 2022, video, full HD, 9 mins

“A fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights” is a video series where I photograph nude older models in their home spaces, who I find through online posts. In these posts, I ask for local nude older models, inclusive of different body types, however only white men have replied. These posts are not sexual and not implying a sexual exchange.

Teaching Mom Photography, 2022, video, Full HD, 3 mins

I teach my mom how to use the camera and she photographed my nudity.

A fly on the wall, a deer in the headlights,08:48 min.

System As a Historical Contingency, 00:45 sec.

Writing an artist statement is such a heartbreaking thing to do, because I do art to get closer to myself while it never really translates the way I imagine.
I want to shape myself organically in various fields. I came to the realization that I have gotten to know myself by gazing at others. My art exists within the labors of my photography, the body movement, and is hidden in the details of every action and mood. When I get involved with my subjects, I understand that Autopoiesis does not come from the heart. Instead, it comes from the inner self unconsciously being nudged during the communication. At this point, I understand that my art is the extension of me.

My art is… my interpersonal experience with my identities, the idea of me as a medium that could strengthen my community, break the physical boundary, touch the unknowns, and liberate myself from the rationalized iron cage. I use cameras to comprehend both individual and collective complex experiences. Sometimes, I combine video, photography, writing, sculpture, and performance, and sometimes I do straight photography. I used to think my mission was documenting my subjects by standing on the opposite side of the mainstream. I also put myself into my work as a subject like a martyr for art. That didn’t make me a hero, but instead a clown. I have come to terms with being a clown because my real purpose is to find out the agencies and different possibilities of my subjects through my own observation. I translate, reproduce, and empower the different scenes of each life through my perspective and my own understanding. I keep saying ‘my my my’ as I am afraid that my words would sound like propaganda. Silly.

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