JHEN CHEN, MAASTRICHT
http://chenjhen.comAmsterdam Lunch
The Instruction of Being the Other
In this project, Chen Jhen intends to explore the idea of herself as the other in The Netherlands and how she investigates the local culture by reflecting on her own common sense and behaviors.
Jhen Chen is a designer and visual artist based in Taiwan and The Netherlands. In recent years, she has focused on using books and multimedia as a practical tool for expressing ideas. Jhen’s research themes center on the identity of individuals or communities in contemporary contexts. Her methods include collecting historical objects, interviewing locals, exploring bodily sensation, and using reenactment to interpret the changing of “locality” in the global context from an individual perspective.
01AMSTERDAM LUNCH—THE INSTRUCTION OF BEING THE OTHER
Publication / RISO print on semi-transparent paper / 120 x 190 x 8 mm / edition of 100
Price 35,00 €
This book was created in Amsterdam, where Jhen worked at a design studio in early 2017 and felt like an outsider of European culture because of her inability to identify the food on the table during lunchtime. In a desperate desire to become part of the group, she tried to imitate what the other people did by secretly taking notes of the actions of colleagues sitting in front of her, such as with how many fingers they picked up one slice of bread, how they spread sauce on the bread, etc. Together with the performer Wu Che Shen, they adapted the notes into a performance script; she watched how he reenacted it and gave immediate guidance and correction. This book is the documental form of the performance.