IMG 6982-001-Bu Num Civilisation Wheel 2

Cass Sculpture Foundation, Goodwood, West Sussex.

Bu Num Civilisation Wheel appropriates aesthetic representations of an archaeological dig. Whilst at Cass Sculpture Foundation, Tu Wei-Cheng developed five excavation sites, each about five square meters in size and one meter deep. Within these sites, ‘cultural relics’ have been unearthed, whilst others remain buried deep underground. In contrast to the usual discoveries at excavation sites the discovered ‘cultural relics’ at CASS are in fact Tu Wei Cheng’s sculptures. Upon close inspection of this work items such as USB drives, computer hardware, speakers, mobile phones, floppy disks, remote controls and even Internet cable slots and motherboards are discernible. Once viewers discover these disguised forms of contemporary objects, they realise the absurdist humour behind the entire archaeological site. Tu Wei Cheng holds workshops in archaeological discovery at these excavation sites, which he combines with related fake press coverage of these ‘discoveries’.