Backstreet Life

Back Street Life is an artist's book, designed overall as a manifest on Taiwanese artist Hsia-Fei Chang's longest performance, enacted between 2020 and 2022. Bringing together a meticulous selection of some hundred photographs taken over those two years, Chang reveals the personal underside of the closed but globalized world of gambling and raises the question of personal identity. Behind the figure of the croupier – a beautiful young woman dedicated to entertaining others – employed in a famous Parisian club, the artist casts a cold and unadulterated eye on the world of work, fate and human relations. Using her mobile phone, she captures images – selfies, and portraits of her colleagues – taken exclusively in the rest area and cloakroom of the club. In reality, these "instants of existences" testify to the monotony and disillusionment specific to this life and its environment. Time takes shape, the artist's boredom and exhaustion are palpable. A croupier by night, a woman and mother by day, the artist invites us simultaneously into her personal sphere by adding images to this selection that in turn question the role of women in our western society.

Accompanied by a text by Christian Mosar, this artist's book continues on from Hsia-Fei Chang's 2022 monographic exhibition at Konschthal Esch entitled Les jeux sont faits. Rien ne va plus (All bets are down. No more bets).

Published by the Konschthal.
Photos by Hsia-Fei Chang.

Available at the Konschthal.