Zhou Tao, Chicken speaks to Duck, Pig speaks to Dog, 2004. two-channel video installation. 8 min 38 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Vitamin Creative Space. SeMA Biennale Mediacity 2016 NERIRI KIRURU HARARA. Buk-Seoul Museum of Art. 2016. Photo: Gim Ik Hyun, Hong Cheolki
Chicken speaks to Duck, Pig speaks to Dog was created cooperatively with several suburban farmers, who all raise poultry and are good at mimicking the birds’ sounds. The artist invited the farmers to the city to show their talent for sound mimicry. They all mimic the sounds of chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs, either standing or sitting on trees in a luxuriant park in the city. Another video shows some of them mimicking poultry sounds, sitting sparsely on the grass located in the immediate neighborhood of a skyscraper. The farmers’ mimicking sounds are as vivid as if they were recorded in nature. Those resonating sounds in a downtown city show an inexplicable sense of distance between the city and the countryside.
