American artist Shu Lea Cheang (b. 1954) is regarded as a pioneering figure in internet based art, Cheang's multimedia approach is at the interface between film, video, internet-based installation, software interaction and durational performance. Employing multidisciplinary techniques, Cheang's works explore issues that are in a state of constant flux, including racial relations, the ecological impact of humans, the ethics of biotechnology, and sexual politics. Cheang seeks to challenge the positions taken by the popular media, institutions and the government.
Cheang's networked assemblages and multi-player performances are either choreographed or delivered in impromptu set-ups. Drawing on imaginary science-fiction narratives and transgressive subplots, to invite if not coerce public participation. Cheang concluded her 20 years spent in New York with BRANDON (1998-1999), the first Guggenheim Museum web art commission/collection. Cheang relocated to Europe in 2000, where she has since initiated several collectives to pursue large scale collaborative performative works, while still focusing on her own cross-gender-genre approach to art. Proclaiming the Net has crashed, Cheang moves on to invent BioNet where she finds viral love and hacks the ‘bio-tech’ in her current cycle of work.
Shu Lea Cheang lives and works in Paris, France.
