Critical Writing Index

Cinema Frames, Videoscapes, and Cyberspace: Exploring Shu Lea Cheang's Fresh Kill

by Gina Marchetti

Cinema Frames, Videoscapes, and Cyberspace: Exploring Shu Lea Cheang's Fresh Kill, Fall 2001, v. 9, no. 2, pp. 401-422

Duke University Press, 2001

In this article, Gina Marchetti delves into Cheang's film Fresh Kill and analyzes it within social, political and digital frameworks. Referencing Donna Haraway's article A Manifesto for Cyborgs, Baudrillard's The Ectasy of Communication and Butler's book Bodies That Matter, the article forms a critical understanding in terms of the content of the film and discusses the film based on the the scholars's theoretical concepts and insights. Cheang's Fresh Kill challenges the viewer to become critically aware of connections that usually go unnoticed because they are buried by the speed and complexity of our contemporary global culture of ecstatic communication. Besides, the film comments on communication and attempts to teach the viewer new ways to perceive the world. Considering the narrative structure of the film, it's seen that Cheang employs the settings like Jean-Luc Godard's films and also makes close links with television, video art, performance and installation arts to create a postmodern effect. Overall, the film is about breaking in and challenging conventional understanding.

ITEM 2001.140 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

The Ecstasy of CommunicationJean Baudrillard

Fresh KillShu Lea Cheang

Will Be Televised: Video Documents from Asia (1990)Shu Lea Cheang

BrandonShu Lea Cheang

I.K.U. (2000)Shu Lea Cheang

A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the 1980sDonna Haraway

Two or Three Things I Know about HerJean-Luc Godard

WeekendJean-Luc Godard’s

Numero DeuxJean-Luc Godard’s

Cultural Dimensions of GlobalizationArjun Appadurai

The Wedding Banquet (1993)Ang Lee

Fingers and KissesShu Lea Cheang

Coming HomeShu Lea Cheang

Transnational Documentaries: A ManifestoJohn Hess and Patricia Zimmermann

Bodies That MatterJudith Butler