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When Peng Hung-chih set out to become an artist in the late 1990s, he probably didn't imagine he'd ever be 'painting' with a dog's tongue. The video installation artist trained as a painter, but dropped it out of boredom.
'There are more possibilities in installation,' says Peng. 'Painting has been developed for centuries. There are fewer possibilities to do something different. There's so much new material to use now.'
In 2000, Peng created two suits to put on his pet dog. The photo series is titled One Dalmatian (2000) and One Lassie (2000). At first glance, it's obvious that the subject is a dog. But move closer and you start to notice something's not quite right. Since when have the spots on a Dalmatian been so uniform and evenly scattered? The tail and paws of the real dog under the outfit give it away.
The next year, Peng produced five more pieces centred on the dog theme.
In Feeding Dogs With My Face (2001), he fixes cameras to the heads of three of his dogs, then dons his own dog suit, lies on his kitchen floor and smears dog food on his face. We watch from the dogs' perspective as they feed from their master's face.