Tang Chao,“Black Pearl”(still), 2021, video, color, sound, 12’53”, commissioned by MACA. Courtesy of the artist and MACA.
Tang Chao edited pixelated video game clips into a historical montage that leaves some things unsaid. The image of fire appears constantly in the work. Fire was a landmark moment in the evolution of the human species, but it has also written an epitaph of mutual destruction; it is a symbol full of contradictions. A Contest Between Fire and Heart is a predestined part of the course of human history. The repeatability and immersive nature of video games mean that, as they are played, they become very good simulators of parallel narratives. In the game, players have countless opportunities to start over, but they often simply welcome a pre-determined ending. As the extraterrestrials in the video ask: Why are they (humans) always like this?
Perhaps a comet will bring the answer.
Tang Chao (b.1990, Hunan, China) currently lives and works in Shanghai.
He graduated from the School of Inter-Media Art at the Academy of Fine Arts. The essence of Tang Chao’s work is like suggestions on lightness in literature. For instance, he refines a whole script into one sentence such as “The dilemma of being in a modern island, a paradise of self-exile.” And recently: “Several delightful dots covered of a series of weak voices.” When you focus on the tone and rhythm of the sentence, and express it through a camera, you then get the shaking focus, light and the scenes. The words are not the most important content; they are sometimes softly whispered, stuttered, or even topsy-turvy. Of course he occasionally uses pictures, performances, installations or dramas for expression, sometimes even typing a few letters on the keyboard. Tang Chao is good at pausing and pressing space, pressing and holding for a few seconds would be fine as well. He always tries to release some illocutionary meaning in every blank space with a straightforward manner.
