Chen Chieh-jen Stages ‘Dysfunction No. 3’ in Ximending

Source: Research on Chen Chieh-jen’s Image Works (1): “Dysfunction No. 3,” “Confession 25”
From: Blog — Stream Creek Bookhouse
Date: July 1, 2011Author: Lin Yi-hsiu

On October 21, 1983, artist Chen Chieh-jen organized friends around him on Wuchang Street in Taipei’s Ximending district — a politically sensitive moment during Taiwan’s martial law era, when supplementary legislative elections were underway. In this “public space” (Ximending’s Wuchang Street) — where public gatherings and marches were prohibited and police and intelligence agents were on constant surveillance — he staged a guerrilla-style performance art action to disrupt what he regarded as sham democratic elections under the martial law system. The action was named Dysfunction No. 3: five young people wearing red hoods, eyes covered with black blindfolds, dressed in plain clothing with bandaged limbs, one after another placed their hands on the shoulders of the person in front — like the blind — and shuffled slowly along Wuchang Movie Street toward a designated point. Suddenly, these blind figures erupted into cries and screams as if asking heaven great questions, and then collapsed one by one, writhing and beating their chests as if undergoing crucifixion. The surrounding crowd, momentarily unable to think, could only feel the shock. The police intervened only after the entire performance had concluded — leaving behind a performance with no prior announcement and no subsequent explanation.

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External Links

• Body Lifting Martial Law (Lecture Record on Corporeality in Asian Contemporary Art)
• Taiwan, Modernity in the 1980s (Global Art Critique)
• Chen Chieh-jen: Practitioner in the Hobbesian Nightmare (LEAP Magazine)
• Island Afterlife: The Parasitic Images of Realm of Reverberations (ARTALKS)