Jun Yang; China. "Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them" and the series "X-Guide"

Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them
Jun Yang. /04, 16:33 min









Jun yang, who was four years old when his family emigrated from China to Vienna, makes videos and installations focusing on cultural and personal identity and the effects of migration and relocation. Filmed in the wake of 9/11, "Camouflage. LOOK like them - TALK like them" reflects the conditions of everyday life in the West for migrants - legal and illegal. - in a climate of paranoia. Migrant X was smuggled from China into Austria, where he is designated a person of 'suspicious appearance and behaviour'. The story of X's failed attempts to blend in with the crowd - and his eventual imprisonment as an illegal immigrant - is told against a background of newspaper headlines reporting extraordinary police measures, false alarms and wrongful arrests. As advice to others in the same predicament, Yang describes the camouflage tactics necessary in order to survive. Though the tales is not remotely funny, its reducio ad adsurdissimum points to the ridiculous situation where we will all have to look and behave exactly alike in order to be above suspicion.
The "X-Guide" pictograms reinforce the messages of the 'Camouflage' video in simple visual language, illustrating appropriate codes of Western behaviour for foreigners. But at the same time there are deeper ironies at play: while designed to enable us to communicate regardless of nationality, race and age, pictograms used as public information symbols are highly culture-specific and can often be misunderstood. Here, in order to make everything absolutely clear, the pictograms are accompanied by captions in English, though English-speakers presumably should not need these pictograms instructions.

*KATAOKA, Mami. "Laughing in a Foreign Language", The Hayward, London, UK, 25 January - 14 April 2008. Southbank Centre.
X-Guide: get a formal hair-cut Alucubon, vinyl, three-part approx. 116 x 160 cm .2004


"X-Guide: learn the local language." Alucubon, vinyl, three-part approx. 116 x 160 cm 2004