Joseph Chen

All-purpose Excretor 1314, 2019

Kinetic Installation

spittoon, electric turntable, hoses, urine bags, C-stand, insulation sheets, fabric, chair, artificial flower, signage

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「2020最新復古美式中國風ins港仔鄧小平同款輕奢萬能排洩器1314」 (All-purpose Excretor 1314) is an re-imaginary of the scene of Sino-British negotiation over Hong Kong’s future in 1984. Spittoon was used in this official function by Dang Xiaoping and witnessed the whole negotiation between Dang and Margaret Thatcher. 

 

Michel Serres explains the exertion of possession right with bodily discharge of living-beings with examples like animals urinating to mark their territories and “whoever spit in the soup keeps it”. From 1841 to 1984, the cession and handover of Hong Kong was like a sputum in the spittoon after smoking opium and cigarette, Hong Kongers were treated as the others and excluded on the negotiating table.

 

By re-placing the spittoon from on the floor between the seats of Dang and Thatcher to on a chair, All-purpose Excretor 1314 sublimed the wastes and excesses from a profane status to the sacred one. The sacredness of spittoon is signified from its all-purpose as a god-like ubiquity in carrying everything from sputum, urine to faeces in different cultural contexts, All-purpose Excretor 1314 acts  as a representational device examining the operation of national identity through dirt and filth. 

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Exhibition History:

New Babylon | PRSNT.CONTEMPORARY
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