Ulysses (Odysseus) was the war hero of the Trojan War in Homer’s epics. He was lost in the homebound voyage for 10 years on the sea, during which he was offered a chance to become immortal, but chose to remain human and returned home for his family. In the Ulysses Machine, Tang made use of this mythological story and developed multiple versions of her personal travels of the body and mind. The exhibition at MOCA Studio is the second stage of three exhibitions that constitute one complete “voyage” in time*, and this exhibition in three parts is defined by the 10 projects that could be deconstructed, reassembled and reshaped, which Tang calls her “machines.”
For the MOCA Studio exhibition, Tang presented 8 projects of the reorganized I Go Travelling series: in the first gallery are I Go Travelling IX—The Sojourner, I Go Travelling IV—Traveller.Bali, and I Go Travelling VII—Plaza Traveler (audio-visual version), and in the second gallery are I Go Travelling VII—Plaza Traveler (audio version), I Go Travelling VI—A Happy Island, I Go Travelling III—IT Vacation, I Go Travelling IX—Wise Man Fish Here; another installation titled A Flight of Language that introduces the concepts of the 10 projects is placed in the hallway.
With years of time and real actions, Tang has extracted the story of Ulysses’s voyage and explored different aspects of “travelling,” which can refer to physical actions but function as a metaphor for Tang at the same time. She interprets the idea of “travelling” from both perspectives of intellectuality and physicality, and examines the exchange, displacement, disavowal, variations and everything that could not be captured by words. In this exhibition, audience venture into a lost journey planned by Tang, and get a glimpse of the core of Tang’s thinking: how an artist thinks, imagines and interprets to achieve the awareness of the human condition. From the formation of thoughts to the delivery of ideas, and from having concepts in mind to expressing statements, the installations manifest the artist’s persevering will and actions, in which she has constantly challenged herself.
There are two live performances and two lectures scheduled during the exhibition, and Tang aims to weave her concepts, performances and installations into a new tapestry of texts, leading the audience to re-think the multiple layers of language, sound, media, body and space. Entering the Ulysses Machine, one could find clues to travel, anchor or sojourn in the original version and various new versions of Tang’s I Go Travelling series, making his or her own departures and returns in between the ideas and concepts that Tang wishes to deliver.
After being an artist for over 20 years, Tang also proposes a major question on one’s self and on life through this exhibition: if one must die in the end, what is the purpose of life? Where is one eventually heading? A travel through the Ulysses Machine might shed new light on these questions.