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Tseng Yu-Chin
Writer: Ying Shang

Another video, the third in the cycle as in the intro depicts a young boy playing with a woman on a bed. The bed can both denote sexual or restful connotations depending on context. In this video work, sexual associations arise from the position and placement of the female figure, her expression, the sound track, the way the boy is positioned on top, and lastly the facial expression of the mother. In Tseng's writing about his work he states "the true form of love, according to Freud, is the form in our parents, or the form of our basic instincts."--for a boy, his first love thus is his mother. From Tseng's explicit reference to Freud, a connection to Freud's Oedipal Complex is inescapable. The Oedipal Complex is named after an ancient Greek story where it is told that King Oedipus inadvertently killed his father in order to marry his mother. In expanding this concept one could conclude the first love-object for a boy is his mother. He wants his mother's attention and affection. For a boy, his father represents a stronger entity that is with his mother. Therefore, in this complex the father becomes the enemy while the child finds for love from his mother. In this video, the boy is overwhelmed with his mother's love. In turn, he is also enjoying her company and her affection because the loves is mutual. Tseng writes "once we are born, we grow further away from the body itself, and substitute it with nouns and adjectives." In this context, Tseng presents the viewer with a scene which dwells both on sexual and human relations and its interpretation is contingent on the viewer's experience. No matter what the viewer concludes, Tseng realizes that words and relational experiences are necessary to express the mandates of the work. This bond and expression of love becomes abstracted by words as Tseng suggested.

The fourth video cycle in the work introduces sexual tension in the way which a child should interact with an adult. Children lack concepts sexual privacy; wherein, an adult may feel implicated by such the innocent actions taken by a child. In this scene, sa boy runs towards his father and embraces him by his lower thigh and genitals. Tseng plays more subtly here wherein the viewer's biases toward proper social conduct is placed in tension with this simple act of a child holding his father. Sexual activities are lost and challenged with Tseng's filming of this direct and natural act. Tseng confirms his intention by writing "if sensations are to be made with logics, and to be separated from passion, then desire can only be spoken through impressionism, and Rodin and Camille should have never kissed".

If passion is amongst the basic instincts of human nature, then it would seem that internal passions are subject to modification during the lifetime of an individual. Tseng's piece "Who is listening?" criticizes social reinterpretations of how these passions and instincts whether motherly or fatherly are transformed into various states of acceptance in both child and adulthood realms. Tseng's work illustrates his relief that emotions should be experienced directly and innocently rather than be collectively held accountable to social conventions which misrepresent simple interactions.

And I played the role of a child.
It is the real skin. It will feel directly.
It is before any outside invasion.
Its reactions are real, although displayed in a slightly confusing manner.
Because while it is labeled on the outside, it will unconsciously drop that label right in front of your eyes

From "Who is listening" Tseng Yu-Chin
www.oxy-spot.com.


 
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