On the occasion of her current survey exhibition KI$$ KI$$, the Ludwig Forum presents the first feature film Fresh Kill (1994) by Taiwanese American artist Shu Lea Cheang.
Fresh Kill weaves cyberpunk, satire and political activism into a radical critique of toxic capitalism and digital surveillance. The setting is Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, which was once the largest landfill site in the world and received all of New York City’s refuse until 2001. The focus is on the queer couple, Shareen and Claire, who live with their five-year-old daughter near the landfill. While Shareen works as a garbage scavenger, Claire earns the family’s living as a waitress at the Naga Saki sushi restaurant in Manhattan. When their daughter mysteriously disappears one day after eating a radioactive contaminated fish, they team up with sushi chef and hacker Jiannbin Lui and with poet and dishwasher Miguel Flores. Together, they begin to uncover a conspiracy of environmental pollution and media manipulation, behind which lies the involvement of the multinational corporation GX Corporation.
Cheang’s feature film debut is also the starting point of her current exhibition at the Ludwig Forum Aachen. A recurring motif in the film is the flickering neon sign reading KI$$ KI$$, a double entendre fusion of “kiss kiss” and “kill kill”. According to the artist, the prop on display in the exhibition symbolises the simultaneity of love and destruction towards the environment and nature.
The evening of 5 March starts at 6pm with a guided tour through the exhibition in German with curatorial assistant Wiebke Wiesner. You can participate in both events consecutively or separately.
Credits: Film poster of Shu Lea Cheang, Fresh Kill (1994). Courtesy the artist and Project Native Informant, London.