The Urban Playground project is Ting Cheng’s approach at artistic intervention and by means of photography she hope’s to open up a process of playing and interacting with the urban surface.
One of the common elements that run through her photos is that all the actors’ faces are obscured. This faceless photography approach expands the capacity of the image as viewers will look at the factors that build up the image rather than only focus on the model’s expression. She also talks of it providing a free mindset beyond an everyday situation. In other words, when the actors cover their faces, they suddenly lose their personalities and identity and it perhaps provides a way for the viewer to shift themselves into the image, sharing these playful elements.
For Cheng, taking a photo is a way to prove her existence and to escape from reality, photography be-comes a medium to create a new reality through visualizing her imagination. Body Theatre is a major concept of her work. She considers the body as a theatre and the urban environment as her playground, her canvas and her workplace. Like a mobile studio or a living sculpture, she will not be limited in any substantial spaces and can travel around the world with her imagination and her body both physically and psychically.
Cheng speaks of never having the feeling of belonging to any one place or any group of relationships. She always believed that the world is existed only through her own consciousness. She says “If I am not satisfied with the reality, I can reorder and reshape the map of the world through my imagination, and even more, to build up a new reality.” Through taking photos, Cheng is challenging the possibilities of space, and the relationship between her body, the human being, and the objects that surround her.
