YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES is a Seoul-based art group consisting of Young-hae Chang, a Korean, and Marc Voge, an American. The duo, who initially formed in 1999, were among the first to use the internet as a platform for artistic experimentation. Using the deceptively simple form of text animations, usually set to music, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES’ work explores the possibilities of media, technology and power in an increasingly connected world of virtual relationships, intensified by the politics of globalisation and migration. Their archive includes more than 500 works, many of them available for viewing on their website.
For this exhibition, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES presents an hour-long programme of nine works, including WA’AD, an 18-minute work about a Palestinian astronaut who lives on Mars with other astronauts. Across all of the works simmers the question of whether new human achievements actually improve the lot of humanity, or increase a growing sense of isolation and alienation. Often using the conceit of a letter, the narratives see-saw between dialogue and monologue, with the human need for connection ever at the forefront of economic and geopolitical concerns. With its knowing use of web-based technology – as well as science fiction – to test out promised utopias against their discontents, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES asks – literally – “is the new and different any better?”.