Wed 15 Jul, 9PM HKT
In English
Hosted by Rafi Abdullah and Joseph Chen King Yuen, participants in the Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals 2020
Poor Imagination (2019) at Sullivan+Strumpf, and continues to live and work in Singapore.
Joseph Chen King Yuen is an artist and curator based in Hong Kong, and currently the Senior Project Coordinator of Videotage. During his incumbency at Videotage he curated .gif Festival: Left Right Right Left Movement, a moving images project experimenting generative interactions as the curatorial framework, and other curatorial projects collaborated with Eaton HK, Hong Kong Design Institute and GoetheInstitut Hongkong. His artworks have been shown in Manchester, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo and beyond. He is a member of a Hong Kong video art project, Video Cypher. He recently received the Media Arts Emerging Artist Scheme of Project Grant from Hong Kong Arts Development Council.
實驗音樂藝術家：姚少龍（又名Alexmalism）
聲音藝術家：李穎姍
跨界藝術家：許敖山（又名Nerve）
實驗音樂家：羅穎綸
藝術家／研究員：馮俊彥
主持
節目策劃：龔志成
Featuring (from left to right)
Experimental Music Artist: Alex Yiu (aka Alexmalism)
Sound Artist: Fiona Lee
Multidisciplinary Artist: Steve Hui (aka Nerve)
Experimental Musician: Vanissa Law
Artist-Researcher: Jasper Fung
Play. Boredom. Worship.
玩樂。 無聊。 崇拜。
Opening reception 開幕：19/10
Exhibition period 展覽：20/10 - 24/11
Co-curated by Alex Yiu & Suze Chan
由姚少龍和陳凌欣聯合策展
關於展覽 About the exhibition
德籍韓裔哲學家韓炳哲藉著一個事例，延伸了來自意大利哲學家阿甘本所提出的「瀆神」（profanation）概念：在希臘受緊縮政策影響後，一些小孩在一間荒廢的大屋裡發現了一團鈔票，但他們不但沒有把現金據為己有，還把那些鈔票作為耍樂的玩具，將之撕碎，去除鈔票本來的意義。「瀆神」本義解作將神聖（屬於神）的物質，轉化為世俗的用途，同時亦解亂用和惡意使用；韓炳哲用以上事例說明了當世界化成頹垣敗瓦的將來，金錢將失去意義，成為我們用以撕掉的娛樂，就如小孩們的「瀆神」行為。
藝術上，「瀆神」可以比擬為藝術家創作的手段，諸如挪用和概念轉換，均給予已有事物新的意義。是次展覽由姚少龍和陳凌欣聯合策展，展覽《Play. Boredom. Worship.》將展示香港六位新晉藝術家的作品。藝術家們通過和策展人之間的討論和辯證，他們的作品將以不同的態度和角度去演繹展覽的主題。
South Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han once quoted an example to explain the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘profanation’: During the recession period in Greece, a group of children discovered a large amount of banknotes in a ruined house. Instead of using them in the way money is supposed to be used, they played with them, tearing them to shreds. Profanation is the act of taking sacred things from gods and using them by mortals. In this example, Han portrays a post-apocalyptic world where money has lost its meaning, and we are shredding paper for fun.
Perhaps in art, ‘profanation’ could be described in the way artists create through appropriation and conceptualisation. Both ways are giving new meaning to pre-existing objects and subjects. Curated by Alex Yiu and Suze Chan, ‘Play. Boredom. Worship.’ will present new artworks from six emerging artists from Hong Kong. Through dialogue and discussion with the curators, the artists interpret the idea with different perspectives and angles with their artworks.
六名創作者均來自於不同的背景，包括建築（陳滿）、平面設計（陳凌欣）、電影（陳嘉浚、黃紫嫣）、當代藝術（譚煥坤）和新媒體藝術（朱文雅），而在是次展覽《玩樂。無聊。崇拜。》裡，他們以「藝術家」的身份把弄著媒介中各種概念的交錯和流動。陳滿的裝置融合多種現成品，以建構世界（worlding）的方式「創造」一個類宗教的信仰，指涉現實世界人類宗教信仰的荒誕。陳凌欣的錄像裝置紀錄了自己在一所酒店內二十多天的生活，監控己身的行為和與人的互動，自我審視之餘亦包含對房間外各種發生的回應。陳嘉浚的攝影作品以商業攝影的手法，把立體的人和物平面化，呈現出後網絡時代的超真實（hyperreal），動搖影像的真實。黃紫嫣的繪畫不單止遊走於虛幻和寫實，其近乎於自動書寫（automatic writing）的創作模式反映了畫者內在的精神世界。譚煥坤的裝置結合了物料和文字，展示媒介之間的對比和對話，並藉此指涉藝術家的情緒。朱文雅的平面裝置充滿幽默感，以輕鬆的姿態對抗嚴肅世界的喧鬧。
在日常不再平常、而平常似是從不存在的日子裡，六位藝術家各自以不同的手法，實視「瀆神」的各種面向。
Coming from different backgrounds, architecture (Chan Moon), graphic design (Suze Chan), cinematography (Harry Chan and Wong Tsz Hin), visual art (Vunkwan Tam), and new media art (Mia Chu), for ‘Play. Boredom. Worship.’, each artist manipulates the interferences and flows in between concepts and materials as ‘artists’, departing from their own practices. Chan Moon’s installation ‘creates’ a pseudo-religion by combining multiple found objects and medium, commenting on the grotesque quality of institutionalised religion and dogmatic belief systems. Suze Chan’s video installation is a documentation of her twenty-day stay in a hotel. Surveilling her intimate habits and interactions with people, the video is not only self-examination but also captures her subtle responses to the events and encounters both inside and outside the room. By applying techniques of commercial photography, Harry Chan presents a flattened version of real objects and delivers the ‘hyperreal’ quality of the post-internet era, making ambiguous what reality we are representing. Wandering between illusion and reality, the paintings of Wong Tsz Yin demonstrate an ‘automatic’ mode of creating, reflecting her inner spiritual world. With different combination of materials and words, Vunkwan Tam highlights the dialogue and contrast that exists between the media. In their juxtaposition and contrasts, the artist’s emotion are unveiled metaphorically. Humour is the central topic in Mia Chu’s installation, resisting the noise of this serious world through light-hearted gestures.
When days are unsettling and mundaneness disappears, the six artists incorporate different methods and practices to realise the multi-dimension of ‘profanation’.
Participating artists 參展藝術家：
Chan Moon 陳滿
https://chan-moon.org/
Vunkwan Tam 譚煥坤
http://www.vunkwan.com/
Harry Chan 陳嘉浚
https://halstudio.info/
Suze Chan 陳凌欣
www.suzechan.com
Mia Chu 朱文雅
https://aim121mia.wixsite.com/herhome
Wong Tsz Yin 黃紫嫣
https://www.instagram.com/du_bist_eine_kleine_maus/
開幕演出 Opening performance: 龢wo4、阿杰 ahkit、Teeda @ Play. Boredom. Worship | 玩樂。無聊。崇拜。
Curator: André Chan
Artist: Cheuk Wingnam, Alex Yiu
Organiser: Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong
Co-organizer: A+ Contemporary
Duration: Sep. 18-Oct. 16, 2016
Venue: A+ Contemporary｜Room 106, Bldg. 7, 50 Moganshan Road, Shanghai, China
Sponsor: Hong Kong Arts Development Council
A+Contemporary is pleased to announce the upcoming partnership with non-profit organization “Contemporary Musking Hong Kong” in September, where a sound art exchange exhibition curated and organized by Contemporary Musiking will be on view in Shanghai. Curator André Chan introduces the theme What Potions Have I Drunk of Siren Tears, and presents the works of two Hong Kong artists, Alex Yiu and Cheuk Wing Nam. The artists will be present and performing live on the day of reception, September 18th, 2016. The exhibition is on view through October 16th.
The exhibition title What Potions Have I Drunk of Siren Tears originates from a sonnet in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, with its Mandarin literal translation as “how much of witch siren tears have I drunk.” The more prevalent saying of siren is mermaid; in Western mythologies, sirens lure sailors with their enchanting voices to shipwreck, while legends of the East tells of sirens whose tears become pearls. The curator combines mythologies of both cultures to entail the transition of sound art in a contemporary context. Since Clement Greenberg first proposed that art could attain a level of “purity” through self-expression, the creative forms of art had begun to gradually expand. Marcel Duchamp had utilized sound as his artistic form as early as 1913, creating Musical Erratum and other sound pieces. While sounds remain invisible, its image is materialized through the artist’s touch. The exhibition will examine the intrinsic qualities of music and sound and present the audience with sound art as it is transformed into tangible objects.
The two exhibiting artists exemplify the most current directions of sound art in Hong Kong, as an increasing number of sound artists begin to incorporate installation and visual elements before inserting in sounds to expose its social, experimental and critical aspects. Alex Yiu’s work includes various visual forms, including video, editing and animation. He combines sound collages with improvised performance to recreate images of popular music and collective memories; an unsettling ambiance is created through garbled codes, videos jammed with glitches, and noises, exhibiting the various predicaments and social chaos that Hong Kong has been through. Cheuk Wing Nam’s work carries a tone of humor where rejection and contest become imperative elements in her work. Musical instruments like the cello and violin serve as the exterior basis of her installation work while cassette tapes, speakers, amplifiers, and an electronic lever are further installed to encourage the audience’s desire to interact with the installation. Hidden within are micro-controller and an electronic instrument that utter irritating sounds and noises, implying an act of defiance.
Through its creators’ continuous in-depth portrayals and dialectics, the realm of sound art has been broadened, reformed, and has subverted its criticism- sound art has now truly become an extension of art. A+ Contemporary aims to explore the multi-faceted nature of contemporary art with an experimental outlook. The exhibition will present the analogous relationship of space, sound, and installation as the artists lead its listeners to experience the moment as material, politics, society, history, body, and culture intersect.
Song to Daphnis
2016
Book texts, photos, world map, red threads, pins, and cassette tape
Edition-of-6
Studies 1-4
2015
Four channels video, color, silent
04″00”(each)
Edition-of-6
Remember That Lesson about Time
2015
Single channel video, color, stereo sound
06″40”
Edition of 6
This Is My Home
2015
Single channel video, color, stereo sound
07″30″
Edition-of-6
Video-still
Enquiry: A+ Contemporary, Shanghai