1st Light, 2005
Since particularly 9/11 and the war in Iraq, Paul Chan has become a key figure in the American art scene as well as in political activism. As part of the series The 7 Lights, the computer-animated video 1st Light describes a vision of Biblical elation – the ascending of the believers to Heaven – making reference to 9/11. The floor projection shows shadowy silhouettes of bodies and everyday objects falling to the ground and equally rising towards the sky. This evokes the 1969 images of floating astronauts as much as those of bodies tumbling from the burning towers – iconic images of hope and terror, of utopia and the apocalypse merge. They show how Chan's deconstructivist critique of civilisation rests on the idea that a random happiness is possible.
Paul Chan, * 1973 in Hong Kong (CN, formerly GB), lives and works in New York (USA)
Paul Chan, 1st Light, 2005
digital video projection (colour, no sound)
14 min., loop
courtesy of Greene Naftali, New York
photo: Jean Vong
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