Paul Chan

Like fleeting shadows on the ground, we see objects defying gravity. Sunglasses, cars, people, everything is falling against a background in shifting colors. But what appears to be simple shadows are digital animations projected on the floor, a recurring feature in Paul Chan’s ongoing series the Seven Lights.The video animation Happiness (Finally) After 35,000 Years of Civilization (After Henry Darger and Charles Fourier), 2000-2003. The story is a dramatization of how we could achieve a better world, based on the ideas of the utopian socialist thinker Charles Fourier (1772-1837), which Chan has illustrated with an imagery inspired by the eccentric Henry Darger (1892-1973). Paul Chan says that he has animated this in a way he believes Darger would have worked if he had been alive today and had access to the internet and knowledge about contemporary art and photography.