RED PILL-Shu Lea Cheang

We’re excited to unveil brand new original artworks from Shu Lea Cheang, offered exclusively through STart Crypto.

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Shu Lea Cheang

Shu Lea Cheang is an internationally recognized Taiwanese-American multimedia artist (based in Paris) who is globally regarded a pioneering figure in internet-based/new media art.

Cheang has been creating and spear-heading mediums of film, electronic, and internet-based art since the 1990s. She works in various mediums including internet-based installation, social interfaces, cinematic productions, software interaction and durational performances. Her artwork explores critical social issues such as race relations, gender roles, human ecological impact, implications of technology, etc. Through her experimental media art Cheang aims to challenge perspectives introduced by today’s dominant institutions.

Cheang has exhibited at Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Guggenheim Museum (New York City), NTT[ICC] (Tokyo), Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and her works are collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum, Guggenheim, among others. Cheang’s web-based creation Brandon (’98-’99), marked the Guggenheim’s first ever engagement with Internet Art. In 2017, the Guggenheim Museum digitally restored this artwork as part of their Conserving Computer-Based Art initiative. Last year, Cheang represented Taiwan as the first female artist from the country with a solo-exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale. Cheang’s debut rare digital artwork release BioNet Baby, (via STart Crypto) sold to prominent collector Whaleshark for 50 ETH (~$18,744 at the time).

Learn more about Cheang’s impressive background + an exclusive live interview here

RED PILL

A science fiction scenario with fantasia imagery, Cheang will be continuing her exploration of the relationship and potential impact of technology, corporate control and the human body through her new series RED PILL. These artworks are a continuation of the BioNet series which she debuted on STart Crypto last year.

The release of RED PILL marks the launch of the 2021 pre-production for Cheang’s feature length movie, UKI, conceived as a sequel to Cheang’s sci-fi cyberpunk feature I.K.U. (2000, Sundance Film Festival premiere). Cheang developed the concept for UKI during her residency at Hangar media lab in Barcelona in 2009 and has since presented the concept in various media formats, including a live cinema performance and an interactive game with bio-sensors. Since 2017, Cheang has engaged in developing the UKI concept into a feature length film for cinema release.

RED PILL – Your Pleasure Our Business

Welcome to the era of BioNet, a corporate scheme to claim, alter, reconfigure our biodata. Using bacteria as foreign ‘agents’ to enter the human body, GENOM Co. can then reprogram the erythrocytes, to transfuse the membranes of red blood cells. Red blood cells which function as carriers to deliver oxygen to the body tissues via blood flow through the circulatory system, is reconfigured into DNA retainers with possibilities to store and reprocess data/memories. The hype of microbio research has certified UKI’s science fiction imagination.

RED PILL is an oral pill made by GENOM Co. which gives instant, ultimate consumption of climactic pleasure. In an era of post-net-crash, GENOM Co. exits the Net and takes the human body hostage to initiate BioNet, a network made up of re-engineered red blood cells (erythrocytes) capable of self-generating orgasmic data. In its profitable biotech engineering scheme, GENOM Co. further harvests orgasmic data transactions to produce red pills for mass pharmaceutical markets.

The owner of this special 1/1 teaser will be listed as a contributor in UKI’s film credits!