The Seventh Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Chia-En Jao’s three-channel video projection REM/Sleep 2011 invites us into the domestic and work places, and most intimate thoughts, of Indonesian, Vietnamese and Filipino workers living in Taiwan. 1 Its semi- documentary style focuses on the usually unheard migrant population and their individual dreams and stories. Giving them a public voice, REM/Sleep challenges us with opposing elements. While there is something heartbreaking about these stories of people longing for home, there are aspects of humour and sharp perception. The subjects do not appear as victims — they speak in their own languages, seeming strong and confident, yet also disconnected from their surroundings. The spaces in which the individuals are filmed are small and enclosed: they could be interpreted as comforting or claustrophobic. As the workers appear to wake, we are privy to their homesickness 2 . While some find a way to return to home and family through dreaming, others experience nightmares, displaying anxiety and guilt about being far away from their homelands. Often indistinguishable in a relentless cycle of work and sleep, reality and nightmare interweave, posing acute questions. Linking desire and longing for family, vivid dreams make it hard for the subject to determine what is real, a premonition or simply a dream. What is clear is the impact of being away from home and the economic forces that urge migration. This economic pressure is not unique to Taiwan and these individual stories are not about nationality or ethnicity; they are simultaneously intimate and global. Jao emphasises dreaming’s tendency to reflect real experiences and concerns, even though dreams are not always recognised as being as legitimate as waking thoughts and experiences. 3 Jao reminds us that dreams are also linked to aspiration. In REM/ Sleep , each worker sharing his or her story has left home, hoping the money they send back will make a better life for those left behind. Jao explains, ‘attempting to explore a dream in the global economic system, individuals migrate due to economic factors and their environment’s effects and influences on them.’ 4 He is interested in the architectural, economic and class structures that inevitably affect our understanding of the stories we hear: Jonathan Salinas works in a textile factory, but dreams about cooking lunch and wearing his pyjamas at home in The Philippines, surrounded by his wife and children; Jefferson Liwanag from Baguio City worries about a nightmare involving a violent conflict between his uncle and brother; and Vu Thi Dinh has a premonition that her father will be injured back home in Vietnam. Jao asks us to consider the way images emerge from and are affected by the subjects’ environments, and how individual perspectives impact upon the way dreams are reconstructed in the viewer’s mind. We are urged to draw meaning from the speakers’ voices, the subtitles, and our own experience, understanding and knowledge. Jao asks, ‘what images does our economic system produce on individuals?’ 5 The artist credits his years living and studying in Taiwan, Paris and London as inspiring him to consider the relationship between identity and language as well as between social and ethnic groups. 6 Language is his chosen linking element and the means by which he makes sense of universal issues of loss, loneliness, and family responsibility. From Jao’s stories, the viewer draws individual interpretations and conclusions. Through his skilful and subtle handling of editing and framing devices -— such as the spliced clips of the sleeping subjects opening their eyes to recount their dreams before returning to sleep — we are drawn into the work’s perceptible rhythm. We are encouraged to focus on the ways in which the statements are spoken, the words themselves and the implications of what is being described. For Chia-En Jao, art making is an ever-evolving conversation. For Statement 2010, which was shown in the Taipei Biennial, he invited people to read artists’ statements. Through unexpected pairings between statement and reader, audiences were encouraged to contemplate speech and writing’s impact on perceptions of history and constructions of meaning. Jao calls artists to account, suggesting that audiences may not always grasp the meaning and messages at the centre of contemporary art, even when explained. 7 REM/Sleep represents Jao’s desire to make accessible work while simultaneously provoking viewers to ask questions and reach their own conclusions. He draws us into his subjects’ personal stories so we may consider what life would be like if we, like them, were obliged to live and work in a foreign place far from family and home. Tamsin Cull 1 In 1994, the Taiwanese government adopted the ‘Go South Policy’, importing labour from Indonesia, Vietnam, The Philippines and Thailand to reduce costs of production of local industries. By October 2011, the number of immigrant workers in Taiwan was over 420 000. Taishin Bank Foundation for Arts and Culture website, <www.taishinart.org.tw/english/2_taishinarts_award/2_2_top_detail. php?MID=2&ID=4&AID=14&AKID=43&PeID=146[21/06/2012>, viewed June 2012. 2 The term REM sleep, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep, refers to the deepest stage of sleep during which there is the highest level of brain activity, and at which time dreaming occurs. 3 Chia-En Jao, email to the author, August 2012. 4 Amy Huei-hwa Cheng, ‘Re-envisioning society’, Curatorial notes #1 , The Cube, Taipei, December 2011. 5 Chia-En Jao, email to the author. 6 Chia-En Jao, Portfolio, < http://chiaenjao.co.uk/02Works/Portfolio.pdf >, viewed June 2012. 7 Conversation between Lee Yew Leong and the artist, <http:// asymptotejournal.com/article.php?cat=Visual&id=5&curr_ index=9&curPage=Visua>, viewed June 2012. CHIA-EN JAO Taiwan b.1976 REM/Sleep (stills) 2011 Three-channel HD video projection, 63:42 minutes, sound, colour, English subtitles / Images courtesy: The artist CHIA-EN JAO Not just a dream 136