Destruction/Reconstruction of the Artist/Art Object

Abstract

Chen I-Chun, Phoebe Boswell and Inci Eviner live in different parts of the world: Taiwan is Chen I-Chun’s home, Inci Eviner lives in Turkey and Phoebe Boswell, who now lives in London, has lived in Kenya and Dubai. The artists are not friends and only two of them speak English, however, their artwork shares a common interest around the self, people, community, art practice and the art object. Sometimes the artworks focus on mythological constructions, which are reconfigured in the case of Chen I-Chun’s animated drawings, while Eviner’s animated drawing entitled Beuys Underground (2017), looks at the destruction of the artist in society. This idea of having a purpose or position is reinforced in Boswell’s artwork Mutumia (2015), which translate as ‘one whose lips are sealed’. In this artwork, the voices of the women are heard at different times in the animated drawing. What is presented in all of these artists’ work is the staging of destruction and reconstruction of the artist and the art object. There are moments of ambivalence that contribute to destruction and reconstruction. The staging is equally about the known and unknown. This is also reflected in the use of technology as a form of art practice. All these artists have embraced technology as a form of cultural brokerage and technology itself has a way of destroying or preserving its own innovation. Considering all these points, how can destruction after the primary burst of creation, be replenished with creativity?