ARTISTIC STATEMENT:
//Music happens in between an action and a situation; it is a behavior over time, a behavior that shapes us.//
//We could only compose the MUSICALITY of music, we can do nothing about music itself.//
I am developing a new form of conceptual composition called “conceptual (new) music theater.” This form adopts aesthetics and methodologies of conceptual art, using concept itself as the dominant carrier, a variable, to initiate a situation, a context.
It employs broad sound materials, installations, multimedia elements and performance/ performing/ performative approaches, creating a body foregrounded and action centered music theater to explore possibilities in the boundaries of music composition, action art and conceptual art, toward a “situation/ happening“ based theater, and transform how we interact with sound, departing from the perspective of “perception“—music—to “conception”—musicality.
Once initiated, the situation evolves dynamically. Audience takes an important role in the delivery, whom I refer to as “acoustic audience“ and “performative audience.“ Human serves as both the primary material and the end of this form, making the creation of a sounding situation inherently moral and public. Why human? Because the pure semantic symbol and image do not occupy time, they are eternal. Yet sound fades away. It is phonetics that gives rise to grammar, shaping time, polarity, and causality—and thus, musicality is humanity.
political body｜虚构身体&以身体虚构
//capturing the sound of body and the musicality of action//
a listening, sounding and performative body;
a metaphorical and socio-political body.
//body, our last battle field./
“corps sans organes” VS “organs without bodies”
德勒兹大战齐泽克
self-portrait, Jan 2023
BIO:
Shasha Chen/ 陈莎莎 (they/ she): composer | artist | performer.
Shasha utilizes compositional, interdisciplinary, and collaborative approaches within the form of 'conceptual (new) music theater,’ to examine socio-political topics such as trauma, identity, gender, power dynamics, patriarchy, social injustice, immigration, and violence. Shasha’s practice is often playful, confrontational, or even provocative, with a focus on the musicality of relationships, representation, fragmentation, and re-contextualization.
They/ She is the recipient of 2025 International Hanns Eisler Scholarship of the City of Leipzig, and she is the artist-in-residence of SANE (Spatial Audio Network Europe) project hosted by Hellerau (Dresden) in April. She is the winner of 2024 Presser Music Award, and has received a fellowship from Art Omi Residency. Her music has been programed for Wiener Festwochen, TIME:SPANS Festival, MaerzMusik Festival, Forecast Forum, “PHŒNIX SATELLITE,” Montréal Contemporary Music Lab, impuls Music festival, etc. She has worked with Talea Ensemble (New York), loadbang (New York), International Contemporary Ensemble/ Ensemble Evolution (New York) , Ensemble Dal Niente (Chicago), LIGAMENT (Baltimore), Klangforum Wien (Vienna), Ensemble Musikfabrik (Cologne), Ensemble Phoenix (Basel), Ensemble NEKO3 (Copenhagen), Ensemble Linea (Strasbourg), Sculptor Christopher Cairns’ Studio (Philadelphia), among other musicians and artists.
Shasha is also a multi-media artist, and a performer. She makes performance art, conceptual art, sound and visual installations. Her art works have been exhibited/ performed in esc median kunst labor Gallery (Graz), Shanghai Himalayas Museum, The Latitude Gallery (New York), Shanghai Jingguan Space, Luan Gallery (Beijing), New York School of Visual Arts (USA), etc, she has performed in Shanghai UCCA Edge (China). She plays piano, guqin and others, she has performed Shakuhachi with Hogaku Ensemble in Columbia University (New York), she played in many rock bands when she was young.
She is a doctoral candidate in music composition at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under the guidance of Prof. Michael Hersch. She holds a master's degree in classical composition from Manhattan School of Music with Dr. Reiko Füting and studied electronic music with Dr. David Adamcyk. Composers she had lessons with and who influenced her most include Peter Ablinger, Isabel Mundry, Ute Wassermann, Martin Schüttler, Chaya Czernowin, Johannes Kreidler, among others. She holds a bachelor's degree from Renmin University of China.
She climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa in 2012 to search for The leopard from Hemingway’s novel “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” She did encounter it eventually, and they stared at each other for 3 minutes, exchanging their souls. She successfully reached the summit. Moreover, the lost-and-found story of her piano key at the foot of Kilimanjaro soon became a metaphor for her lost-and-returned relationship with music, which is the story of her life.
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