Ma Daha (Chinese slang for scatterbrain) is a collective of young filmmakers, artists, and musicians based in Changsha. The inspiration for their artistic practice stems from the reality of the member’s mundane day jobs (in wedding salons, design firms and tofu packaging plants) as well as an unyielding appreciation for the American free jazz maestro, Sun Ra, whose purported visit to the planet Saturn, wild music, cosmic philosophy and worship of garlic continues to fascinate Ma Daha members. Presented here is a diptych video sculpture made from found objects, tree branches and TVs. History Channel- Back to Basics documents primal man’s first perplexing encounter with fire. However here the fire is not just any old kindling but instead explosion scenes excerpted from Hollywood films compiled together at a pace so fast that a continuous flame persists throughout the video. The work not only derides the gratuitous violence that Hollywood films unceasingly portray but also questions how far indeed we as humans have actually evolved. Ma Daha has been making mostly project-based work for exhibitions and public interventions internationally since 2006.
