Repeating as a basic language learning technique is frequently used in teaching and learning, especially for a language. When Han saw Bruce Nauman’s piece Good boy, bad boy (1985), she remembered repeating as a training process that were told to do when she was learning English. For her, the pain of learning English was like the pain of alway being good in childhood. Correcting pronunciation and repeating words feels stultifying, but it is a must. She asked “what if we were not told to be good”? She recreated Nauman’s piece, by revising the positive sentences to negative. The function of art, from her point of view, provided a safe area where one don’t need to be good.
This work has two parts: a video plays on a device and an artist book. The book provides the laser burned lyrics, arranged as a square.
Pratt Institute DDA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Andrea DeFelice
Colophon Twelve copies
After Bruce Nauman (Good boy, bad boy, 1985), 2016
Performance video, artist book
Video: H.264 1280 x 720 stereo L R, 7:07
Artist book: 3 x 1.5 inch card leaves, 24 leaves
After Bruce Nauman, Han Qin, 2016
Pratt Institute DDA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Andrea DeFelice
Pratt Institute DDA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Andrea DeFelice
Pratt Institute DDA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Han Qin