The Egg Rack Catalogue
Liang-Jung Chen
English
2022
Published by Liang-Jung Chen
Taiwan
16 X 10.5 X 2 cm, 12 Sketches, 2 Essay Booklets, 1 Egg Rack Box
Box Material: Recycled Pulp Grey Chipboard 400G
Booklet Material: Single-sided Glazed Kraft Paper 120G
Limited Edition of 350. Each catalogue is hand-numbered.
The Egg Rack Made a Disclaimer is a series of interactive installations exploring vulnerability, personal boundaries and the invisible tension between the two. Resulted in two interactive exhibitions in Taiwan, it was first presented in Gallery Error22 in Tainan in December of 2020, and was later on view in NOWspace in Taipei in March of 2021. The exhibition examines the accountability structure between the creator, the object, and the user.
The exhibitions were prefaced by a disclaimer at the entrance of the exhibition“Disclaimer: Welcome to the exhibition of egg racks. Upon entering the space, you are invited to interact with the egg racks at your own risk. The designer has made every attempt to ensure the security of the eggs exhibited in the space. However, each visitor will be held accountable for breaking the eggs and will be responsible for all accidents and damages incurred as a consequence.” The exhibition acted as a kind of social experiment to gauge people’s reactions to the vulnerability of the eggs and explore the different, often contradictory meanings that they can take on.
The Egg Rack Catalogue is a portfolio of ‘The egg rack made a disclaimer’, containing 12 real-size sketches of various sizes and two pieces of essays – a preface by Liang-Jung Chen and a review by Graham Baldwin. The paper box itself serves as a paper egg rack of 6, as usual, each user will be held accountable for breaking the eggs.
Sketching has always played an important role for Liang’s creation process. ‘I see sketching as a series of dates with an idea before we enter a committed relationship. If I really like it after the first few dates and we get along, I will then bring the idea into real existence by making physical models.’ Chen considers the sketching and hatching process very reflective. ‘The labour-intensive and time-consuming process allows time and space for second thoughts and refinement. A form of calibration and purification. I also enjoy playing in the ambiguous space between dimensions and perspectives. Just a pencil and piece of paper.’
Liang-Jung Chen was born in Taipei. Liang-Jung Chen is a London-based interdisciplinary designer and artist with a focus on everyday politics of artefacts. She works with sketches, objects, sculptures, installations and spaces to explore the intangible tension and interplay between the organic and the manmade. Her works are often informed by her interests in material culture in anthropological research and contemporary geopolitical contexts, while professional training in industrial design allows her to bridge sensitive narratives with rigorous material and detail-oriented awareness. She was a designer in residence in Makerversity of Somerset House Studios in 2020. Her works have been presented extensively in the London Design Festival, Melbourne Design Week, Dutch Design Week, and soon Paris Design Week.