Sade for Sade's sake
Paul Chan
American, born Hong Kong 1973
2009
A silent color video projected in the gallery that uses life-size silhouettes of human bodies to stage fraught, physically intense encounters evoking violence and desire.
You immediately notice the stark, oversized shadows of people climbing, carrying, and collapsing against a bright wall—familiar gestures rendered eerie and theatrical by their scale and flatness.
By reducing bodies to shadow and sound to silence, Chan links filmic and theatrical techniques to question how images shape our perception of power, eroticism, and the spectator’s role, connecting contemporary media art to political and literary histories.
Medium
Video (color, silent)
Dimensions
5:45 hrs.
Classification
Department
Credit
Committee on Media and Performance Art Funds
Accession
1667.2009
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
