Confronting the corrupted powers aiming to destroy the Holy Mountain Zion and City ─ Reading the 2020 “Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition”, Tainan Art Museum 

By Professor Hai-Ming Huang, Renowned Art Critic / Former Director of Taipei Fine Arts Museum 

Preface:

I. Arrangement of the works and highlights of the discussion

The works in this exhibition include “Portrait of Eve Clone” in 2010, “Making of the Eve Clone” in 2016, and “Making of the Eve Clone BP/1-6, VP/1-6”, “Making of the Eve Clone II”, and “Making of the Eve Clone III” in 2020, which have a certain relationship of constantly learning various inspirations.

In order to make it easier to construct a more manageable development system, I have placed the two series of prints “Making of the Eve Clone BP/1-6 and VP/1-6” in the first place, followed by 2016 “Making of the Eve Clone I”, in which the “Eve Clone” created by Pey-Chwen Lin overlaps with Da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man" that has already become a part of the world. If the “Eve Clone” has not become the center of the world at once, it has at least become a great tempter to seduce people away from God and from the original state of God's creation.

I placed 2010 “Portrait of Eve Clone” in the third place, emphasizing her identity as a seductress and her evil nature. Next in the fourth place is 2020 “Making of the Eve Clone II”, “Eve Clone” - a digital fluid transforming devil that can mimic the appearance, movement, and expression of a human being and take away the soul. All of this deepens the identity of “Eve Clone” as a seductress and her methods.

The next is the fifth in the order, the 2020 “Big Image of Eve Clone”, in which Eve Clone continues to take shape, evolve and gain a strong life as a demon big idol. The sixth in line is also the 2020 “Big Image of Eve Clone”, but this time it discusses the inevitable relationship between the growth and decline of the energy of the devil/big idol and the increase and decrease of the number of worshipers. The seventh is “Making of the Eve Clone III” - the charming beauty idol and the prophecy of the destruction of the city. To a certain extent, this is the process of people being tempted to destroy the world together.

Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition. ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin

II. Important Religious Background of the Artist

The artworks in this exhibition are based on the religious doctrine of the artist Pey-Chwen Lin, whose church is the New Testament Church with its holy mountain “Mt. Zion ” in Taiwan and the Prophet Elijah Hong. The New Testament Church emphasizes the return to Eden, and is based on the Old and New Testaments with full gospel of the witness of Blood, Water and the Holy Spirit. The New Testament Church has many consecrated lands all over the world with Mt. Zion in Taiwan being the center of worship where God’s children are living like the body of Christ through the pastoral care and leadership of prophets. The Prophet Elijah Hong leads the New Testament Church and the Eden Homestead, where God's plan of salvation and eternal mission is expressed and carried out in the fullest and most realistic way in advance. In terms of the life of the believers, Mt. Zion practices the unity between God and man with a very harmonious communal life of a large family. The school on Mount Zion, called “Eden Homestead", teaches children to respect God and love others with the concept of “God-based Education” and the Bible as its foundation. Mt. Zion criticized educational materials for teaching such as evolutionary theory which is “contrary to the truth”. The reason why believers want their children to receive non-institutional education is so that they can get a better education.

From the above-mentioned statement, we can see that their consecration and seperation from the world is very clear, and they need to be careful not to be tempted by the devil and corrupted in the process. Because they have suffered very serious persecution before, so they are particularly sensitive to any injustice! In a way, Pey-Chwen Lin’s “Revelation of the Eve Clone” is a reveal and representation of how the powerful tempters today are tempting human beings to gradually corrupt themselves and move away from the Eden. The “Eve Clone” is not about the biological gender, it is about the various seductive and corrupting roles.

Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition. ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin

Exhibition Structure

1. Large-scale screenshots at the entrance, the display of biblical texts and design drafts

The “Making of the Eve Clone VP/1-6” and “Making of the Eve Clone BP/1-6”, with the screenshot of “Making of the Eve Clone I” and the biblical text, create a declaration of the work. Pey-Chwen Lin also enlarged and projected the biblical quotations in the form of a “Declaration”, transforming them into a spiritual sublimation with great visual impact.

The two series of works with biblical quotations at the entrance of the exhibition are, in my opinion, somehow more combative than a declaration, in a way like a notice posted at the gates of an ancient city for wanted criminals. On the other side, in the horizontal exhibition cabinet, shows the artist’s review of her reference, reflections, experiments, and manus during the process of creating the “Eve Clone Series”, including her drawings of the human body in a grid that relates to Da Vinci's drawing of the "Vitruvian Man".

These interweaving materials, exhibited in such a unique context and sequence of concept, suggest that this entire project is still in progress from the purely personal viewpoint of the creative development, or even more so, from the viewpoint of the gradual realization of end-time prophecy. This trace that is almost finished but still incomplete actually lays down a thoughtful hint and foreshadowing for the development of the whole exhibition.

《Making of the Eve Clone VP, BP》 ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin

2. A combination of Da Vinci's hand-painted male body and computer-generated female body

This is the work created by artist Pey-Chwen Lin, who won the first prize in the New Media Art category at the Florence Biennale in Italy in 2019, “Making of the Eve Clone I”. The Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation are used to replace the mirror text of Da Vinci, and the iconic patterns of computer 3D software, wireframe, and cameras are deliberately retained, along with Eve Clone and Da Vinci's hand-drawn sketches and manus of the male body, creating a combination of digital and hand-drawn textures, and through the continuous interaction between Eve Clone’s and Da Vinci’s sketches of the male body, a cross-time, cross-media, and cross-field combination and dialogue is created, echoing the concept of androgyny.

The theoretical basis of the European Renaissance was humanism, which affirmed that human beings were the creators or masters of life, and demanded that literature and art should express the thoughts and feelings of human beings and liberate them from the bondage of divine power. Leonardo Da Vinci, the iconic figure of his time, was passionate about artistic creation and theoretical research, but he also studied natural science at the same time. In order to create a realistic and touching artistic image, he extensively studied various subjects related to painting, such as optics, mathematics, geology and biology. Therefore, his famous sketch "Vitruvian Man" inevitably absorbed the message of the progress of human civilization and all the myths surrounding him, and thus became a great cultural symbol that can be utilized and appropriated with great force.

This work emphasizes the receding theocracy of the Renaissance era, in which Da Vinci already had sufficient self-confidence to be the master, and therefore Da Vinci’s sketch of the ideal human male body is even more crucial. The addition of the popular virtual ideal female body, drawn with digital technology and popular fashion design aesthetics, can serve as the basis for a new relationship between the two sexes, and a more superior narration of new relationship between human and God.

I personally think that at the beginning, there is a strong implication of gender equality, but then there is the formation of a stronger female god, Eve Clone, which is to replace the male god. This work becomes a collective and fast evolution of an integration of cross-disciplinary creation. First relying on the male god, and then using the old ideal of the male god created during the Renaissance as a backdrop, Eve Clone presents herself independently as a protagonist and spins herself with greater charisma, at this time she poses a threat to the world, or at least to a single religious belief system.

Pey-Chwen Lin’s digital audio and video installation, Making of Eve CLone I, was awarded the First Prize in the category of New Media Art at the 2019 Florence Biennale in Italy.©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin

3. Hologram of artificial humanoid beasts that can seduce and even attack people

Pey-Chwen Lin's “ Portrait of Eve Clone” series uses 3D motion hologram technology to combine the head of Eve with the images of various animals, and then give different mineral colors and textures (gold, silver, copper, iron, clay), with “666” symbols printed on the forehead in different languages. The “666” is the beast mark that controls mankind according to the Book of Revelation (Revelation 13:16-18). This “3D Motion Hologram” creates a series of fascinating images that do not need to be plugged in the electronic power but can interact with the viewers.

This small set of works is installed at the edge of dark space. It is necessary to sway the body from right to left in order to see the various angles and different expressions and gazes of “Eve Clone”. On this basis, of course, we can discuss the interaction between the work and the audience, but the more important thing is still ahead.

Even at a glance, we are often fascinated by the contours of the face and the charm in the gazes of different “Eve Clone”. But if we can remain attentive, we may catch a glimpse of the evil and seductive look in her eyes which is the most important point. Because the basis of such sensual language, it is possible to carry the profound meaning of the Book of Revelation and its contemporary interpretations, such as the aliens that have transformed completely into humans and have been hiding among the population for a long time in contemporary science fiction films. It is quite different from the terrifying giant bio-metal aliens in earlier science fiction films.

《Portrait of Eve Clone》©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin 

4. Digital fluid transforming devil can mimic a human being’s expression and seize his soul

The deion is referring to the interactive installation “Making of the Eve Clone II”, which uses the facial recognition system to interact with the public in real time. The work takes the original image of the black and white grid image of the combined faces of “Eve Clone” and “Vitruvian Man” from the work “Making of the Eve Clone I”. Through the audience’s participation in learning human facial expressions, the work illustrates that “Eve Clone” has progressed to learn human emotions and expressions.

After the merging of “Eve Clone” and “Vitruvian Man”, the most powerful fluid transforming super woman is finally created by the advanced digital technology and mutant materials. This super woman is able to learn human facial expressions through audience participation. What is presented here is not only the advancement of the interactive digital device, but also the fluid “Eve clone” that can imitate your appearance. The most important part is that “Eve Clone” can instantly imitate your expressions, happiness, anger, sadness, and all kinds of inner desires. She instantly becomes all those who are close to her and gain their complete recognition as well as penetrate into their minds.

In fact, it accesses us and gradually changes our minds and spirits, just like what we call “Obsession”, which is the most powerful. Generally speaking, if we have the value to be used, all our personal information can be stolen, and can also be studied and judged, and then slowly access our minds to change us, or to directly attack and plunder us. This line of defense is not set up in the battlefield, customs, ancient city gates, nor is the metallic electric eye in your home or mine to prevent burglary, but is in the entire digital network interface everywhere around us.

《Making of the Eve Clone II》©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin 

5. Design of the Big Idol of the Beast that keeps on forming and evolving to gain a strong life

The work “Big Image of Eve Clone” simulates the evolution of the “Eve Clone” on a huge curved wall, and discusses the duplication, interaction, and the time code of “Eve Clone” which co-exists with human beings in the same time and space. Before discussing this issue more thoroughly, her development and the way she was shown are needed to be discussed. “Big Image of Eve Clone”, unlike the robotic clone that still needed to spin and turn with the ideal male body of Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” in the early work. “Eve Clone” now has spun herself like a model with a very attractive pose.

What is interesting is that at the beginning of the evolutionary process, the manus were drawn on an old yellowed surface with the skilled hand-drawing of the “Vitruvian Man” of Leonardo da Vinci, gradually becoming a female body drawn with curved and mechanical lines, and then changing into a body with a metal skin, a body with a plastic skin, and various symbols and animal or mechanical details.

These latticed projections, like the frescoes in the Pantheon, remind us the film experiments that inspired the Futurists, and later the prints of Marilyn Monroe by the Pop Art master Andy Warhol. A detailed distinction is needed here, as it includes the changes from the ancient image to the modern image, from the sketch of the human body without technological intervention to the reproduction of the human body with the help of powerful technology.

Simply speaking, there is a change from the natural slow evolution of the human body to the increasingly rapid evolution of the female body. And now there is a virtual female body leading the way, and then the real female body in life is imitated to these leading virtual female bodies? And the majority of people's desires can be obtained from big data to guide the rapid evolution and form a continuous strengthening cycle until it is unable to support itself and breaks apart?

The internet is the way to reach the largest number of believers. The internet is also a tool to gain the desire of more people and to strengthen the charisma and energy of the big idol.

〈Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition〉 ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin  

6. The inevitable relationship between the increase and decrease of the energy of the Devil/Big Idol and the number of worshipers

The “Big Image of Eve Clone” presents the evolutionary process of “Eve Clone” on a curved projection, discussing the duplication, interaction, and time code of “Eve Clone”, which co-exists with human beings in the same time and space. The duplication is not only the internal duplication of the various degrees of completeness or variants of the big idols in the picture, but also the process of both repetition and difference among the big idols at different stages in the evolution. What may be more profound is the reproduction of these big attractive idols among the mass audience or believers.

In fact, the “duplication, interactivity, and time code of coexistence with human beings in the same time and space” are indivisible. This “Big Image of Eve Clone” has a golden head sculpture with a beast mark  “666” on its forehead at a slightly  “Big Image of Eve Clone” will be able to interactive if the audience raises his/her right hand in a gesture of worship, like the gesture of allegiance to Hitler in the Nazi era, and if the audience touches the beast mark on the forehead of the golden head, the projected images of “Big Image of Eve Clone” will evolve rapidly and even appear to be spinning in an irregular and agitated manner. What if no one approaches and there is no worshiper? Does “Big Image of Eve Clone” lose her power?

Here is not merely a question about the interaction between the number of images and the amount of energy that activates them. The gesture of worship means giving up one’s original judgment and surrendering to the idol of worship, or giving up the true God that one used to worship and surrendering to the whole or partial leadership of the new idol of worship. The digital fluid transforming devil idol that can mimic the body shape, movement and expression and take away the soul, also discusses the duplication, interaction and time code of “Eve Clone” that coexists with human beings in the same time and space. All of these are excellent perceptions for such complex concepts.

The internet technology is the way that can reach the largest number of believers, and the internet technology is also the tool to gain more people's desire and increase the charisma and energy of the big idols. The American scientific movie “The Matrix” mentioned that human beings have been replaced by the “Cyber men” invented by them many years ago, the Cyber men can think for themselves and are more perfect than ever while human beings are becoming “disadvantaged”. In the end, the only use for humans is to be the source of power for the computer. All of them lie in an incubator; their heads and bodies are plugged with wires and tubes, controlled and nurtured by the Matrix. The exhibition of “Eve Clone Revelation” is not only to reveal and resist this nameless Matrix, but also to reveal and resist this ubiquitous Matrix which is even more difficult to resist.

〈Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition〉©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin  

7. The Charming Big Idol of Beauty and the Prophecy of the Destruction of the City

The “Making of Eve Clone III” quotes from the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation, as well as the prophet Elijah Hung's proclamation of the Kingdom of God to this generation, and uses digital video dissolving technology to project the text throughout the entire space.

In this three-dimensional space of overwhelming inspirational texts of the Book of Revelation, several screens are placed on the floor, the largest of which shows the Big Idol of Beauty standing on top of the Empire State Building in New York, tornadoing the city as we see the fire destroy the city. The rest of the images are laid flat on the ground to focus more on the big idol of beauty, is there only one or are there many big idols? This is a good question.

Anyway, the last fire from the sky hit the big idol of beauty, and it started to burn from the feet and turned into ashes at the same time, so it all burned down to a tiny dot of light, and then completely disappeared into nothing. Is this the final end of the Revelation? The big idol and the city that worshiped her were destroyed together, was it completely? Or was it partial? Or was there a possibility to avoid the destruction?

From the previous analysis of “Design of the Big Idol of the Beast that keeps on forming and evolving to gain a strong life”, and from “The inevitable relationship between the increase and decrease of the energy of the Devil/Big Idol and the number of worshipers “, it seems that there is a need for a holy mountain and holy city that is isolated from the temptations of the world? There is always a patient pair of eyes in the heaven, as well as the final blow that will be struck. Here, “Making of the Eve Clone III” fully expresses artist’s fundamental position for her whole Eve Clone Series in a very direct way.

《Making of the Eve Clone III》©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin  
《Making of the Eve Clone III》 ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin  

Summary:

The focus of the New Testament Church’s faith is to perform the future Eden in the world. As a devout believer of the New Testament Church, the artist presents and carries out God’s plan of salvation and eternal mission in the New Testament Church and the Eden Homestead under the leadership of the prophet on Mt. Zion in a rich and realistic manner. Also, she has the ability to magnify the influence and destructive power to an unprecedented degree especially in the era where technology and internet are extremely advanced and tempting, for example, the temptation of knowledge, power, prestige, money, sexual desire, and so on. Knowing that the world will one day be destroyed because of the depth of sin, she uses her art to expose the temptations that lead people away from the Eden, under the title of the series “Making of the Eve Clone”. Between the faith and the creative thinking of her unique art, a special sensibility and wisdom gradually emerged. Naturally, this is an endless process, and because of this, it is particularly fascinating to think through.

Eve Clone Revelation- Pey-Chwen Lin + Digital Art Lab Exhibition ©Artist Pey-Chwen Lin