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2023
CATALYST PROJECT
SEVERING, FRACTURING, UNITING, PULVERIZING, POLICING
VAL LEE
2023/04/14 - 04/16
Structural violence, as compared to overt individual violence, is a more subtle and elusive form of violence. With the policing system as a point of entry in the work "Severing, Fracturing, Uniting, Pulverizing, Policing," artist Val LEE creates a multi-perspective spectacle that merges sound, sculpture, video projection, and other elements. The high-intensity live art and dance arrangement enables the audience to experience tensions generated from a collision of multiple unnamed events. This vivid portrayal unveils the complexities inherent in structural violence.
Police violence is now a global phenomenon. Through interviews and by referencing contemporary anthropological literature on policing systems, Val LEE further explores the inherent violence of stability maintenance systems employed by the state by scrutinizing the contradictory condition of individual police officers within the contemporary law enforcement environment. Val LEE creates thematic cohesion through "choreography" -- an approach that also demands bodily obedience, and posits the audience at a perspective internal to the policing system. From physical training to the corporeal effect of violence, to organizational deployment -- performers repetitively enact symbolic movement sequences as “the police” to convey a state of physical detachment under high-pressure.
This work also features collaborations with several artists in stage installation, lighting, and sound design. Political metaphors are conveyed through architectural structures that obstruct sightlines; intense flashing lights in dense fog; high-hanging black banners; and modified alarm signals. As the audience’s perceptions undergo high frequency changes, it creates a sense of extended illusion, allowing the scattered allegories to be reorganized again.
Director｜Val Lee
Production｜Ghost Mountain Ghost Shove
Creative Consultant｜Jun-Jieh Wang
Space Design｜Jr-Shin Luo
Lighting Design｜Ray Tseng
Action Design｜Albert Garcia
Costume Design｜Hikky Chen
Sound｜Hao Luo
Performers｜Chu-Hua Wang, Su-Lien Lin, Fly Wu, Wave Yang, Chun-Wen Liang, Harold Wang, Albert Garcia, Ching-Heng Huang
Assistant to Director｜Yue Su
Stage Manager｜Dai-Rong Lin
Key Visual Drawing｜Li-Tzu Hsu
Graphic Design｜Jia-Hong Huang
Photography｜ETang Chen
Live Recording｜Toisland Project
* Sponsored by the Hong Foundation and NSFG Foundation
* Photos provided by Val Lee, photographed by ETang Chen
ARTIST
VAL LEE
Val Lee graduated from the State University of New York with a major in Filmmaking and a minor in Sociology. In 2008, Lee founded Ghost Mountain Ghost Shovel and has been active in the fields of visual and performing arts. Lee's work utilizes 'temporal scenarios,' integrating expanded cinema, live art, and video in collaboration with artists, actors, dancers, musicians, amateurs, art scholars, and curators from various cultural backgrounds. Through these collaborations, Lee explores themes like national systems, systemic violence, war, and contemporary mental states, creating multi-layered, dreamlike scenes with unique viewer relationships that often provoke debate.
Lee’s video works have been exhibited at SOMA Art Berlin, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, the Vernacular Institute (Mexico), HKW (Germany), the Grand Palais (France), the Gwangju Biennale (Korea), and the Taiwan Biennial. Live performances have been staged at the Kyoto Art Center, the National Theater in Taiwan, the Taipei Arts Festival, and others. Lee has received support from the Asian Cultural Council, the Hong Foundation, the National Culture and Arts Foundation, C-LAB, and Australia’s Performance Space, and was awarded the Taishin Arts Award for Visual Arts in 2017.
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