Chen Chieh-jen : Factory

18 Sep-21 Nov 2009

Overview

Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-Jen's haunting film Factory is shown for the first time in London. Focusing on a group of textile workers, it is set within the context of manufacturing moving abroad in search of cheaper labour. In 2003 the artist invited workers to return to the Lien Fu garment factory which had been closed down 7 years earlier. The unscrupulous owners were investigated for refusing to play retirement pensions and severance. In the mid 20th-century Taiwan's manufacturing industry was booming as the Western world outsourced production. Factories sprung up all over the country and workers were brought in to live in dormitories. Shots of women textile workers moving around the building are mixed with fragmentary images of their protests, as well as footage produced by the government in the 1960s to promote the new found prosperity.