Ting-Tong Chang

Ting Tong Chang (b.1982, Taipei) is an artist who lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan and Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

Chang’s satirical gaze leaves no aspect of society untouched. Revelling in the absurd and illogical, he makes a mockery of socio-political subjects ranging from the social and ecological effects of consumerism to the functioning of the art world itself. Working across the distinct practices of immersive installation, video and theatre, his transgressive practice co-opts science, technology and history to dissect the world around him.

After receiving his MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2011, Chang has exhibited internationally. He held solo exhibitions at the Museum of NTUE and Taipei Fine Arts Museum and has participated in group shows and commissioned projects in Jeju Biennial, Anyang Public Art Project, Guangzhou Triennial, Taipei Biennial, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Compton Verney Art Gallery and Wellcome Trust. Chang’s major awards include the Taishin Arts Award(TW), Taipei Art Award(TW), Art Central RISE Award(HK), VIA Arts Prize(UK), Gilbert Bayes Award(UK) and Lumen Prize(UK). His works can be found in the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Art Bank, Hong Foundation, Aura Contemporary Art Foundation and private collections in Europe and Asia.

ARTWORK

SOAP
Net.Art

The project, “SOAP”, is an online exhibition organised by the artist Ting -Tong Chang. It is his response to the current pandemic period in which events have been forced to be cancelled and where exhibitions and shows can only be found on the Internet.

In this project, Ting-tong Chang utilises an instance of fake news that circulated during World War I, “Kadaververwertungsanstalt” (literally, Carcass-Utilisation Factory). This was a rumour deliberately spread by the British Intelligence agencies. By way of mass media, they fabricated and circulated a story about the Germans having built a secret factory in the heart of a German forest where they dissolved corpses into soap for army use when resources were scarce. Along with illustrations, fabricated reports combined conspiracy theory and already existent prejudice towards Germany in order to facilitate a shift in British public opinion in support for the war.

Using this story as his base, Chang constructed his own fictional soap-making factory, which also serves as a centre of information production, turning soap into a tangible metaphor for information.

Artwork Link
https://www.thesoapfactory.com.tw/index.html

Website
http://www.tingtongchang.co.uk/