Ludra 2008
The installation ‘Ludra’ 2008.
Ludra was inspired by a failure of understanding. It is a critical comment on the global function of information and all the misinterpretations and one-sided views this implies. In China, I was naturally confronted with the one-sided, misleading image that the media creates of the country (as one could be when travelling to any other country). “Made in China” naturally also deals with censorship, and the dysfunctions of censorship in general. Yet it works in both directions.
The title Ludra has no meaning. It consists of three large objects (170 x 65 x 30 cm) hanging from the ceiling and a shelf with newspapers, the material from which the objects are made. The size of the objects refers to the human body. This can be seen as a metaphor for the influence of information and of the constitution of (cultural) identity. I built the objects on a “skeleton” made from a chicken coop with many layers of newspaper applied. The newspapers create a “skin”, a pattern that I have perforated by sticking my fingers through it, thus manipulating the pattern. The installation is about the ambiguity of information and language and their relation to the identity of individuals and nations.
The objects are made with newspapers in different languages. As it is difficult to get foreign newspapers in China, I collected the newspapers from several embassies, and had them sent and brought to China by friends from all over the world. Ludra is a critical comment on the global function of information and all the misinterpretations and one-sided views this implies.
With thanks to (a selection):
China Tibetology Research Center
Embassy of Cameroon, Finland, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Congo, Mexico, Iran, Hungary, Palestine, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Columbia, Thailand, Greece, New Zeeland, Nepal, Slovakia and India.
And dear friends who participated by mail:
Anssi Pulkkinen, Tsui-Lun Liu, Erkan Özgen, Hrair Sarkissian, Pavlina Verouki, Paula Bugni, Jaakko Koskentola, Abdallmonieh Hamza, Kostana Curcic, Rob Jeuring and Ricardo Liong-A-Kong.
Ludra was inspired by a failure of understanding. It is a critical comment on the global function of information and all the misinterpretations and one-sided views this implies. In China, I was naturally confronted with the one-sided, misleading image that the media creates of the country (as one could be when travelling to any other country). “Made in China” naturally also deals with censorship, and the dysfunctions of censorship in general. Yet it works in both directions.
The title Ludra has no meaning. It consists of three large objects (170 x 65 x 30 cm) hanging from the ceiling and a shelf with newspapers, the material from which the objects are made. The size of the objects refers to the human body. This can be seen as a metaphor for the influence of information and of the constitution of (cultural) identity. I built the objects on a “skeleton” made from a chicken coop with many layers of newspaper applied. The newspapers create a “skin”, a pattern that I have perforated by sticking my fingers through it, thus manipulating the pattern. The installation is about the ambiguity of information and language and their relation to the identity of individuals and nations.
The objects are made with newspapers in different languages. As it is difficult to get foreign newspapers in China, I collected the newspapers from several embassies, and had them sent and brought to China by friends from all over the world. Ludra is a critical comment on the global function of information and all the misinterpretations and one-sided views this implies.
With thanks to (a selection):
China Tibetology Research Center
Embassy of Cameroon, Finland, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Congo, Mexico, Iran, Hungary, Palestine, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Japan, Columbia, Thailand, Greece, New Zeeland, Nepal, Slovakia and India.
And dear friends who participated by mail:
Anssi Pulkkinen, Tsui-Lun Liu, Erkan Özgen, Hrair Sarkissian, Pavlina Verouki, Paula Bugni, Jaakko Koskentola, Abdallmonieh Hamza, Kostana Curcic, Rob Jeuring and Ricardo Liong-A-Kong.
