The multimedia artist Yuchin Chen received an artistic research grant at the ZKM Karlsruhe as part of the open call „Spatial Storytelling“. During the fellowship, she developed the fixed media piece „The Wetness of Slow Devour“, which will be premiered at the ARD Hörspieltage on November 8, 2024.
In this work, which begins with the mythology of sea monsters and oceanic fantasies, Chen explores states and experiences of devouring and being devoured. She links sonic discourses that reflect technological, social, ecological, and affective realities.
Chen's work is generally concerned with feelings of harmony and disharmony, as well as association and dissociation between the self and the environment. She is particularly interested in body awareness and the integration of space into the creative process. Through this approach, she sheds light on how the self experiences time and space and how this perception influences the sense of physical presence.
Yuchin Chen, The Wetness of Slow Devour (2024)
Fixed Media, ca. 20’
An immense, deep sound
Beyond human measures and frequencies
The dear devouring
Do not run away from being human
The ocean has long been a source of fear and fascination, with mythology shaping humanity’s perception of the sea and its inhabitants. Sea monsters embody these fears, mysteries, and the unknown, manifesting both human anxieties and reverence for existences beyond us—and the fear of being devoured by them.
The act of devouring is a constant process for humans, both as devourers and as the devoured. We devour energy, light, organisms, non-organisms, land, rivers, minerals, oil, others, love, intimacy - and at the same time, we are devoured by industry, capitalism, ideologies, networks, information, war, responsibilities, emotions, morality, possibilities, repetition, dreams, and reality.
The Wetness of Slow Devour begins with sea monster mythology and oceanic imagination, exploring the states and experiences of devouring and being devoured, narrating intersecting sonic discourses across technological, social, ecological, and affective realities.
