Debuting in Toronto, Demon Girl Duet (2007) presents a sonic-video duet in the form of a two-channel video installation, juxtaposing and interweaving two river journeys of mythic proportions. One journey is down China’s principle waterway, the Chang Jiang (Long River), or Yangtze (its Westernized name), and the other takes us inland, up the Niagara, which spans a modest 35-mile stretch of the United States-Canadian border. These journeys chart the mythologizing of history, guided by an elusive, phantasmagorical demon swimmer with duo voices who serves as a siren and a conduit for contemplations on the old, the new, the rational, the mystical, and the migrations between them all. With lyrics written by Millie Chen and chant performed by vocalist Katherine Duncanson, the work is both captivating and mesmerizing.
This work is a video still from Millie Chen’s work “Demon Girl Duet” (2007), a two-channel video installation, with lyrics written by Millie Chen and chant performed by vocalist Katherine Duncanson. The video is running in an edition of 5 at $7500 each. The work is now (thru June 24, 2007) in an exhibition at LEE Ka-sing gallery, Toronto.
Millie Chen exhibits and lectures internationally, and her practice encompasses writing and curating. Most recently, Millie showed in concurrent solo exhibitions in France at the Centre d’art contemporain de Basse-Normandie and Centre cultural canadien in Paris, FILE-Rio 2007: the Electronic Language International Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tank Loft Contemporary Art Center, Chongqing, China, Textile Museum of Canada, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Albright-Knox Art Gallery/Buffalo Arts Studio in Buffalo and Hong Kong Heritage Museum.
