It was in the fall of 1998 that I caught a first online glimpse of Fung Lin Hall's work.  At the time, it seemed as if there were only a handful of new media artsites on the net, and Fung Lin's Eggplant site (mutanteggplant.com) was offering surprizing and often entertaining ideas as to what this new thing called internet could be used for in the arts.

Digitalsouls.com is pleased to present this selection of Fung Lin's digital images. 

Quiet and persistent, Fung Lin's digital images manage to create a subtle current of uncertainty that invites interpretation and re-evaluation of what is seen.

The following are selections from the email correspondence between Fung Lin and myself that equally enlighten, entertain, and obscure the visual information contained in the images.
 

Fung Lin 09/25/98
The Eggplant project "was inspired by a strange looking eggplant that I found at Havelska open market in the Old Town of Prague. The Mutant Eggplant got executed for our dinner. The shell was a souvenir my son brought back from Spain. The toilet paper was from the Prague Castle. G theory is my spoof on C theory.  These are my chinese peasant feet, good for planting rice."

Ctheory - http://www.ctheory.com/

H-Ray 12/14/00
Interesting work.  I particularly like the Warhol piece on your site, but I am confused about the authorship of the piece, i.e., image, text, flash animation ...

Fung Lin 12/16/00
I am the author and the flash animation was done by Koji Tada. The text is a mixture of Simon & Garfunkle lyrics and classic popular music, except for the two lines (2000 Pimples to Silent Stars, 15 seconds of Fame instead of 15 minutes) which are mine. The pictographs on Warhol's face are the same pictographs that I used in Bullshit Calligraphy, another animation work presented at Agogical Intervention. Attached is the image of a Japanese film still where I got the idea. Sometimes I refer to Warhol piece as Fungus Face L'etranger.

H-Ray 01/13/01
Perhaps we could do a short interview with some background info about you and your work.  As you know, I like the Warhol piece especially, but let me know if you have something else in mind.

Fung Lin 01/14/01 
Interview by emails?  I may decide not to answer some questions if that is acceptable then my response is yes.  I'll let you know if I come up with something fun.
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Re: Warhol
go to Winter Flies and check out my friend's work. (I had an idea to do icON cOFFin - an extention of my Eccentric Visions which you find at mutant eggplant).
http://members.shaw.ca/dadent/winter_flies/warhol-a.htm
 

H-Ray 02/21/01
The hammer and chad images are great. Are they part of a series?  I like  "Intriguing Vertical Chads" as a title.

Fung Lin 02/21/01
Yes.  Could be incorporated into a visual dialogue of "Charades of Chads" and my piece could have the Intrguing Vertical Chads as title- with two hammer images without titles (just visually hinting at the two supreme courts involved.)

Eggplant babies are normal and still alive.
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Sorry for sending you so many images.  I don't know how to discriminate, sometimes.
 

H-Ray 02/21/01
Thank you so much for the images.  I liked the eggnudes descending a staircase and the eggplant baby still lifes.  The images are so simple and straightforward, but somehow unsettling, working on a level that does not fully enter my conscious reading of the images.  Not exactly sure, what it is, but those images keep working on me ... usually a very good sign ;-)

I think we should provide some information about the origin of images themselves and the process that led to their current form; i.e., do you use scans of 35 mm slides/prints and work on them in Photoshop or similar, or are they digital images
from the start, etc.?

Fung Lin 02/21/01
Almost all are scanned from 35mm prints and minimum Photoshop work.  I work more on the conceptual level, and I use simple methods. My formal training is in etching, collages and painting.

Re:Still Life When I decided to call the image Still Life I suddenly had a powerful and emotional reaction to the double meaning of the words. Resurrecting the genre, breathing new light to the words in these precarious times - life in the sterile, ominous present, struggling to give birth and stay alive.

Eggplant babies are normal and still alive. 
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These eggplant babies were found at Lee Lee chinese market in Chandler Arizona.  They may be adults, I don't know if these eggplants are going to grow in size. 

Last November I went to Italy and do not remember seeing mutant eggplants
there.  Eggplant is called Lilec in Czech and they have a lot of mutant eggplants.

I don't remember seeing Czech dishes using eggplant. Very Strange. My favorite Czech vegetable name is Cinske Zelenina - the Chinese cabbage or Bak Choy.

The English use french name aubergine and Eggplant is American name.

The gov't thinks these genetically engineered vegetable are safe.  I pray. I eat a lot of them.  Organic vegetable is better but too expensive.
 

H-Ray 02/21/01
Fung Lin, do you have any introductory or background text/statement that would offer an initial frame of reference in approaching your work? That would be very helpful.

Fung Lin 02/25/01

Statement

I am afraid of making a Statement, so I enlisted help from Wittgenstein. My first choice is:
"If there were no connection between the act of expectation and reality, you could expect nonsense."  Wittgenstein.

My second choice is:
"Memory and reality must be in One space."

I list the rest for your enjoyment. The axioms of a geometry are not to include any truths. One could say: "Unfamiliarity is much more of an experience than familiarity."

Here is more boring one from me.

I love conducting research/connecting ideas and see patterns- a statement made for this email only.

Ciao,

Fung Lin Hall