ca. 2023
by Ivan Cheng
So you expected that by now a sexy firefighter
would have arrived, and virtuous, serving the state,
execute the deed to be done. Put out the fire. Show me
what criticism generally does. Extinguish it. Hosedown,
angels, survivors, pictures. We put on the best song to strip to,
lyrics that kind of match the scene, serve the cause. The fire brigade
and shiny trucks, wet t-shirts and puppy saving, big meals out of big pots
that a curmudgeonly cook doles out for the hungry, the working.
Who could you turn to today to make you feel this?
Most of my sensation comes through what
cinema is now, images I confuse for poetry.
I am for the people
I am of the people, a relation, a riddle and
‘can’t you phrase this’ the anti-aesthetic turn-away, the poles.
The history of race and gender tends to keep people as things,
the performance of science and division ‘don’t be studied’
Aren’t you still looking,
Look to screens for competition commerce and commentary
Economy as participation
Language should remind you of what your relationship is to what you see
Symbols and iconography are safe they bring together what I see
Unification is a state of subjectivity, is it difficult to question who you are?
To fear a tongue and still need to use it?
Ivan Cheng (b. 1991, Sydney) works with genres, languages, and their readings. He produces video, objects, performances and publications alongside complex and context specific spectacles. His background as a performer and musician form the basis for using performance as a critical medium. He has initiated project space bologna.cc in Amsterdam since 2017.