Ivan Cheng

2021

Artist Novel, 11.7 x 16.4 cm, 176 p., language : English, publisher : TLTRPreß, Berlin, ISBN : 978-3-9819640-5-9.
Materials: ink, paper

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2031/8).

Literary synopsis

Confidences / Baseline plays with the vampire novel like a dollhouse. Characters who variously believe in the power of theatre and performance become entangled with grief, desire, and the unknown. What does a rehearsal come to mean when a vampire lives forever? Baseline is the first in a series of books that fetishise nightclubs for their inaccessibility. Deluded realities antici­pate the transformative sensuality of penetration. In his second novel, artist Ivan Cheng maintains his fixation on structures for audiences between public and private.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

This novel was written for a solo exhibition in a small space in Vienna, to accompany a cookie box that Ivan Cheng commissioned. He was writing prose increasingly during the covid period of reduced performances to continue staying active in writing, and try to keep playing with structure and form.

Novel's website