Glowing white text with the lyrics “在哪里” (which translates to “where” or literally “at what place?”) from Teresa Teng’s song 甜蜜蜜 (Sweet On You) on a gradient, glowing pink and blue background.

Sap 濕
Chun Yin Rainbow Chan 陳雋然

Sap 濕 by musician and interdisciplinary artist Chun Yin Rainbow Chan 陳雋然, is an audio-visual installation designed in the digital and replicated in the physical. The work contemplates the intimate ties between love songs, cultural memory, and identity formation.

Sap 濕 draws upon recollections of Rainbow’s childhood after migrating to Australia with her family in 1996. It also pays homage to the legendary Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng. A feeling of temporal displacement pervades Sap 濕, haunted by a desire to belong to a past and future that never existed.

In this work Rainbow contemplates the myth of karaoke subtitles, intended as a guide to lead audiences through the lyrics and story of a song. But what feelings do the seductive scrolling neon text elicit when you are unable to read the lyrics of your mother-tongue? As the glowing text unfurls, so do feelings of shame, alienation and yearning. Rainbow amplifies this tension by reimagining the lyrics “在哪裡” (which translates to “where” or literally “at what place?”) in Teresa Teng’s song 甜蜜蜜 (Sweet On You.) Rainbow takes the original karaoke text and digitally manipulates the script until it is no longer legible. The text dissolves into a pseudo topographic map to navigate the diasporic psyche.

Read Artist Statement

There is a saying that, “Wherever there are Chinese people, Teresa Teng’s song can be heard.” In Sap 濕 I explore this sentiment, contemplating the intimate ties between music, cultural memory, and identity formation. For this work I have drawn upon recollections of from my childhood after immigrating to Australia from Hong Kong in 1996. It also pays homage to the legendary Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, who tragically died of an asthma attack in 1995, aged 42.

Echoes from my past coalesce into a disjointed present. I recall my mother cooking and humming along to Teresa Teng, reluctantly attending Chinese-language school on Saturdays, Grandma’s cassette mixtapes and handwritten letters from Hong Kong, the cheap-sounding reverb on karaoke mics. I have repurposed fragments of Teng’s bittersweet lyrics into a hypnotic soundscape, using the pull of nostalgia to illuminate the diasporic psyche.

Read Artist Statement

There is a saying that, “Wherever there are Chinese people, Teresa Teng’s song can be heard.” In Sap 濕 I explore this sentiment, contemplating the intimate ties between music, cultural memory, and identity formation. For this work I have drawn upon recollections of from my childhood after immigrating to Australia from Hong Kong in 1996. It also pays homage to the legendary Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng, who tragically died of an asthma attack in 1995, aged 42.

Echoes from my past coalesce into a disjointed present. I recall my mother cooking and humming along to Teresa Teng, reluctantly attending Chinese-language school on Saturdays, Grandma’s cassette mixtapes and handwritten letters from Hong Kong, the cheap-sounding reverb on karaoke mics. I have repurposed fragments of Teng’s bittersweet lyrics into a hypnotic soundscape, using the pull of nostalgia to illuminate the diasporic psyche.

Sap 濕

A darkly lit room, with woodeen floor boards and black curtains with four black plinths of different heights centered in the middle with four different bright pink blobs centered on each plinth. Centered above hangs a bright pink neon sign with distored Chinese characters which cast a pink glow over the installation and the space around it.
Hanging in the middle of a drak background a bright pink neon sign with distored Chinese characters which cast a pink glow.
A darkly lit room, with woodeen floor boards and black curtains with four black plinths of different heights centered in the middle with four different bright pink blobs centered on each plinth. Each of the blobs have distored images of faces and Chinese karaoke characters.
    • FRI 02 September 2022, 17:00 – 20:00 AEST
    • FRI 23 September 2022, 17:00 – 20:00 AEST
    Event Concluded
    • Campbelltown Arts Centre (C-A-C), 1 Art Gallery Rd, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia

  • FREE

    • Audio Described
    • Wheelchair
    • Quiet Space Available

  • Please note this work will be presented as part of the BLEED activations at Campbelltown Arts Centre (C-A-C) on FRI 02 September and FRI 23 September, 17:00 – 20:00 AEST, along with Endless Blue Edge and you can never touch your shadow.

Sap 濕 by musician and interdisciplinary Chun Yin Rainbow Chan 陳雋然, interrogates the tensions between identity, sound and place. Through repetition and degradation, Rainbow traverses the borders of meaning in her own family history and in the cultural legacy of Teresa Teng.

Repurposing Teng’s bittersweet lyrics, Rainbow uses the pull of nostalgia to illuminate the diasporic psyche. Fragments of Teresa Teng’s ballads are sonically manipulated and repeated ad nauseam. The short loops have been pitched, stretched and processed using feedback and resonance which distort the music’s sense of time and space. These loops will emanate from multiple speakers, individually encased by 3D printed objects which have a blob-like quality. Created from warped karaoke subtitles, the blobs are reminiscent of tear drops and sap.

Behind the sounding objects is the soft glow of a neon sign, its text echoing the distorted lyrics. Neon is both a nod to the changing urban landscape of Hong Kong, once defined by its neon lights, and Rainbow’s now-closed family restaurant, a local Chinese takeaway in Sydney’s suburbia. For Rainbow, it symbolises ephemerality.

Against this backdrop, the audience is invited to walk around the space and put their ear close to the sounding blobs. As the fragments repeat, different musical elements drift in and out of one’s awareness. Seemingly sappy love songs transform into a hypnotically “out-of-time” environment

Credits
  • Lead artist and sound production - Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
    Neon production - Emma-Kate Hart
  • Sap 濕 is commissioned and produced by Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of BLEED 2022.
  • BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) was conceived by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and The City of Melbourne through Arts House. BLEED 2022 is produced and presented by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and City of Melbourne through Arts House, Taipei Performing Arts Center and Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. BLEED has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and Cultural Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney.

Sap 濕


  • Access the Audio Description of the digital experience here:
    • Available On Demand

  • FREE

    • Audio Described

Seemingly trivial pop songs turn into hypnotic soundscapes in this interactive online installation by celebrated musician and interdisciplinary artist, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan 陳雋然. Sap 濕 interrogates the tensions between identity, sound and place. Through repetition and degradation, Rainbow traverses the borders of meaning in her own family history and in the cultural legacy of Teresa Teng.

Fragments of songs by Asia’s Eternal Queen of Pop, Teresa Teng, are sonically manipulated and repeated ad nauseam. The short loops have been pitched, stretched and processed using feedback and resonance which distort the music’s sense of time and space. Visually, karaoke subtitles have been frozen in time and rendered into blob-like digital objects.

Each blob encases a different audio loop, which can be activated individually or simultaneously. The audience thus acts as “DJ”, constructing their own listening experience using the degraded loops. As the fragments repeat, different musical elements drift in and out of one’s awareness. Sappy love songs transform into a hypnotically “out-of-time” environment.

Credits
  • Lead artist and sound production - Chun Yin Rainbow Chan
    Digital designer and animator - Rel Pham
    Digital developer - Daniel Reid
  • Sap 濕 is commissioned and produced by Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of BLEED 2022.
  • BLEED (Biennial Live Event in the Everyday Digital) was conceived by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and The City of Melbourne through Arts House. BLEED 2022 is produced and presented by Campbelltown City Council through Campbelltown Arts Centre, and City of Melbourne through Arts House, Taipei Performing Arts Center and Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. BLEED has been supported by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and Cultural Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Sydney.
Acknowledgement of Country
Arts House, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Taipei Performing Arts Center, and Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands we work on, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung, Dharawal, and Ketagalan peoples. We extend our respects to their Elders past, present and future while respecting the vast Traditional Owners Nations our digital platforms reach. We extend this acknowledgment to Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Austronesian artists, audiences and communities, and First Nations peoples globally.
墨爾本藝術之家、坎貝爾敦藝術中心、臺北表演藝術中心及台北當代藝術館向我們土地上的第一民族暨傳統所有人致上敬意，包括烏倫杰里族（Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung）、塔爾瓦斯族（Dharawal）、凱達格蘭族（Ketagalan）及其眾支系。因著BLEED數位介面所將廣泛觸及的各種傳統民族與土地， 我們尊榮各地過去、現在及未來的祖先與耆老。我們更將這份對台灣與澳洲原住民族、托雷斯海峽群島民族及南島民族的藝術家、觀眾與社群的致意延展至全球各傳統領地與第一民族。