Friction Current: Magic Mountain Project
Commissioned by National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
Taichung City, Taiwan
Curated by Hsu Chia Wei and Ho Tsu Nyen
The Strangers from beyond the Mountain and the Sea
Asian Art Biennial 2019
October 5, 2019–February 9, 2020
We are strangers of the same old mountain and the same old river.
The cosmic folklore of Zomia highland groups explains that mountains are wrinkled lands, sewn by special threads, that wove together the region and the continent. In the perspective of modern science, these lands were formed through plate tectonics in geologic time, involving the dynamics of pressure, temperature and enormous friction. The process has unfolded for eons, and continuesto the present.
Friction Current: Magic Mountain Project is an artistic research project by Jiandyin that focuses on the phenomenon of forces caused by an interplay of forces of resistance, relative motions, frictions and currents between modern ation states and the stateless Zomia. It takes as its starting point, two types of witnesses. First, the jadeite formed by metamorphic rocks in reaction with the chemical elements NaAlSi2O6 and second, urine samples containing the chemicals C10H15N (methamphetamine). The circulation of these two substances in and from the Zomia are crosses not only the borders of nation states, but also the border between the legal and illegal, thus functioning as metaphors the intertwining of the historical, the sociopolitical, the economic and the cultural situations.
2019, single-channel video, NaAlSi2O6 powder, C10H15N human urine, jadeite sphere water fountain, refrigerated cabinet, immersion sturgeon waterproof contact microphone, USB audio interface, controller, sound speakers, painting, documentation, 100 Yuan-1990 China banknote, mural paint.