Emotional Encounter, 2019 (installation)
High above your head, a tongue glides over full, bright red lips. Our bodies can’t help but react to this sexually charged image, the eagerness of the virtual mouth. By provoking a physical reaction in the viewer, artist Chang Gao bridges digital and physical realities. The work was conceived in the context of an overdeveloped part of London, the licking tongue visualizing the greed of capitalist developers. The ‘encounter’ with the mouth makes us aware of the incongruity between the abundance of our own desire and the scarcity thinking of big moneymakers.