Launch: On The Desert Island Ting-Ting Cheng and Stephanie Moran

Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and Stuart Hall Foundation are delighted to announce the launch of On the Desert Island, an interactive audio site-specific work by artist Ting-Ting Cheng which will be presented in Iniva’s Stuart Hall Library (1 June – 22 December 2017).

To celebrate the launch of On the Desert Island Ting-Ting Cheng will be in conversation with Stephanie Moran, Iniva’s Library Manager on Thursday 15 June 2017, 6.30 – 8.30pm.

Offering a unique way to explore Iniva’s remarkable collection, a new artwork by Ting-Ting Cheng On the Desert Island takes its cue from Professor Stuart Hall speaking to Sue Lawley on BBC Radio 4’s ‘Desert Island Discs’ in February 2000. On the long-running radio show, the presenter asks the guest to punctuate their conversation with eight records they would choose to take with them if they were cast away on a desert island.

Ting-Ting Cheng, the first artist-in-residence in the Library, draws on the recording of Professor Stuart Hall’s interview to create an interactive audio guide which imagines the Stuart Hall Library as islands with its bookshelves and contents as land mass to be negotiated. Using the library’s categorisation system that places exhibition catalogues according to their geographical location, the artist’s tour encourages the listener to wander between Great Britain and Jamaica as if they were part of an archipelago. On this physical journey, they will follow Professor Stuart Hall’s conversation about identity and diversity 17 years ago in the context of Britain today. Revisiting Professor Stuart Hall’s commentary, On the Desert Island casts a curious light on today’s political, social and cultural realities where issues of sovereignty and the rise of uncontained xenophobia are as prophetic as he imagined:

‘Britain is facing these two possibilities as alternative futures and I want the British to consciously move towards a more cosmopolitan idea of themselves.’

– Professor Stuart Hall, Desert Island Discs, February 2000.

Biography

Ting-Ting Cheng
Ting-Ting Cheng was born in 1985 in Taipei. After graduating from Fu-Jen University with BA in Advertisement and PR, Cheng moved to London and received her first MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster in 2009. After participating in a number of solo and group shows internationally, she graduated from MFA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London in 2014.

Cheng has had solo shows at Taipei Fine Art Museum, Galerie Grand Siècle (Taiwan), Identity Gallery (HK), Nomart (Japan), Addaya Art Centre and Luis Adelantado (Spain). Her group shows include the Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitechture (Shenzen), III Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, KuanDu Museum (Taipei), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art (Taichung), National Art Museum of China (Beijing), ARCO Madrid, Art 14 (London) and Singapore Art Stage.

She was shortlisted for the Taipei Art Award in 2011 and selected for MIT at Art Taipei in 2012. In 2015, Cheng was awarded Asian Exchange Prize by Asian Creative Award in Japan and was commissioned by 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc_Videobrasil in Sao Paolo.