THE COLLECTION OF TIME IN THE POLYMER AGE

Premiere

Playful, poetic, and with a multimedia angle – in the combination of animated objects and sound, Uncertain Studio creates spatial works that are simultaneously installation and performance. In their most recent work, the collective tells the story of the Kaohsiung refinery, Taiwan’s first oil refinery: Initially a power plant of the Japanese occupation forces, the installation underwent multiple restructurings and expansions following World War II. It triggered Taiwan’s first environmental movement and was only finally shut down in 2015. Uncertain Studio brings the different characters from the refinery to life: From personified crude oil to a refinery worker, the performance lends each figure – humans and objects alike – a face that changes with time. But how do we evaluate time? THE COLLECTION OF TIME IN THE POLYMER AGE weaves individual stories into a grand and complex picture that makes the subjectivity of a sense of time palpable.
The performance is part of the ISLAND OF PLASTIC DREAM project which aims to examine the historical context of Taiwan’s petrochemical industry complex and to further a global dialogue by artistic means.