Three Bishe

This work is my undergraduate graduation work, and I have paid homage to Joseph Kosuth here. Bishe is the abbreviation for graduation design, it sounds like bisher. I named the work “Three Bishe”. Firstly, I was going to create a parrot model to speak the phrase: “I am Chen Yan’s (the author) Bishe”, and then write a text definition of “Bishe” (the bird) next to the parrot, such as: Bisher, born in 2019, a large parrot with a short tail and rounded head, a climber, not a good flyer, found in Africa, etc. Finally, next to these two objects place the introductory label of the work: ‘Three Bishe’.

If the viewer first sees the textual definition of ‘Bishe’, they will naturally interpret the parrot’s words as the name the author has given to the parrot, but if one is initially attracted by the parrot’s voice and ignores the text next to it, then the viewer may interpret “Bishe” as graduation design and then correct their perception when they see the parrot’s information next to it. The word ‘Bishe’ is an ambiguous and vague reference in this scene, making the three elements in the work verify and refute each other, forming a logical closure of opposites, yet whichever order the viewer follows, it ultimately leads to the same question: the title of the work is ‘Three Bishe’, but apart from the bird and the definition of it, where is the other bite? It is only when one steps back and sees the work as a whole (i.e. the three elements in one) that it becomes clear that the real Bisher (graduation design) is right in front of our eyes and that we have forgotten its original meaning. Through this work I hope to deconstruct words and linguistic rules that we take for granted in our lives in a context that is common and familiar to university graduates. By creating text-induced misinterpretations that briefly alter or obscure the inherently artificial connections between names and objects, I hope to make the viewer think about alternative ways of understanding language and the world, about “what is visible “, “what is real”, “how the reference to a name is determined”, “the relationship between the contingency and necessity of naming”, etc.