18 Carousels turning on childhood memories

By Ericamigo Wu

From China Times / Cultural News Edition / 27 December 2014

White horses, unicorns, pirate ships and all kinds and shapes of cute, colorful carousels, carried the childhood memories of adults and children. Taiwanese artist Chun-Yi Chang made video recordings on 18 carousels in Paris. These carousels are in all kinds of sizes and shapes, accompanied by crystal-clear sounds of the ‘Carousel Waltz’. It is quite spectacular when 18 monitors played the video recording simultaneously. There is no one riding the carousels, rotating along, starting a journey which does not have the beginning and the end. 

Chun-Yi Chang lived in France for over a decade. Now holding an exhibition ‘Instant d’entre’ in the Crane Gallery in Kaohsiung. The exhibits contains three painting/video installation works including  video installation ‘The Carousel Waltz’. Among the 18 carousels she shot, the oldest carousel is in Jardin du Luxembourg Paris constructed in 1879 which are still working today. From Eiffel Tower, Champ de Mars, Sacré-Cœur to Parc Monceau, every district has a carousel. They are fixed, and has long term relationship with the residence and environment. In the process of filming, Chun-Yi Chang got to know the owners of the carousels, as well as the people, adults and children alike, who came for a ride on the carousels. These carousels are also the parents’ childhood memories. Some of them stood there hundred years old, with different rotating speed, carrying the history of the cities.  

Another work the ‘Fairy Lake’ series also reminded me of childhood memories, the experience of ‘hide and seek’. A little girl in red dress in the Fontainebleau forest, sometimes circles around a tree trunk, sometimes lean on the tree trunk counting with eyes closed. The plot of ‘where is the little girl from?’ and ‘what has happened’ were eliminated from the storyline. And the audience can only concentrate on the action and behaviour of the little girl, and focus on everything happening and changing at the immediate moment.  

Chun-Yi Chang went to France to study in 2003, obtained Master of Fine Art from the National Rouen College of the Arts in 2008, and Doctor of Fine Art from the Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne University. Now she is a postdoctoral researcher for the Collége d'étude mondiale in Paris. In recent years, she took residencies for the Artist-in-Residence in the Los Angles and New York ISCP International Studio & Curatorial Program. She was also invited for exhibitions in France, New York and Beijing. ‘Instant d’entre’ is her first solo exhibition in Taiwan since she left France. 

Chun-Yi Chang is good at taking something seemingly normal yet out of track, using  the method of interweaving the static and dynamic factors to recreate different emotions. Sky Blue±1, is a work of such illustration. An photo taken at the beach of Santa Monica Ocean Park with a video recording of the fluctuating ocean imbedded in between the sky and the beach. The appearance and angle of the ocean is constantly changing, like we could never get hold of time in reality.