Hong Kong, agnès b. CINEMA, Hong Kong Arts Centre, March 26, 2016, 12:30pm
Christian Jankowski | Crying for the March of Humanity | 2012, 26ʹ02ʺ; Contemporary Fine Arts
A parody on oversentimental Latin American soap operas. A video composed of scenes where actors exclusively communicated by crying. No words, only sobbing and sighing and crying, men and women alike. So what? But good production quality, at least.
Hans Op de Beeck | The Thread | 2015, 15ʹ05ʺ; Continua
Video of a life-size puppet theatre performance, a romantic love story of a punk girl and punk guy, from first kiss to death. Seemed more like a documentary of a live theatre performance than an artwork itself.
Breda Beban | Jason’s Dream | 1997, 10ʹ; Kalfayan
I completely forgot… I had to google what it was about. It was actually quite fun to watch, but out of sight out of mind… video fast food. Content: A coffee bar attendant signing about her love life and a steelworker that fantasizes about having a relationship with her.
Inci Eviner | Nursing Modern Fall | 2012, 3ʹ; Pearl Lam
Composite video collage consisting of slightly absurd figural scenes. A well done homework for an Adobe AfterEffects video compositing class. More suitable as an video installation then a as projection. At least it was quite short.
Tsubasa Kato | Tokyo Loop | 2014, 6ʹ07ʺ; Mujin-to
A truck driving around Tokyo at night, with a projection screen on its back. The projected image was that of a soldier or samurai or karate fighter or something similar, taking on different poses. Slightly absurd, but interesting image construction. Even though not much was happening, it actually managed to engage for most of its playtime.
Jack&Leigh Ruby | Car Wash Incident | 2013, 6ʹ01ʺ; Leeahn
A two-channel formalist work, addressing the question of time manipulation in time-based media. The content, something about a red plastic bag and car wash, seemed to be just a placeholder for an editing game that was the major carrier of meaning. Unfortunately the film grain of the image was changing with different cuts, because using close up shots just seemed to have been an after-thought.
Sussman&Lee | No Food No Money No Jewels | 2015, 7ʹ13ʺ; Leeahn
Video documentary of an absurd theatre performance featuring cleaning up staff and a guy dressed as a girl. Good camera and engaging, but seemed to be a fragment of a bigger whole, so hard to decipher. Plus points for appropriate length.
Chen Yin-Ju | Transactions | 2008, 7ʹ42ʺ; Chi-Wen
Soundtrack: The Taiwanese artist who has been studying in the U.S. is making a call back home to her mother, asking her to read out the contents of the credit card statement documenting the artists (daughters) spending in the U.S. Image: Shorts of (probably) her mother working in what appears to be a tailor or small textile company. A touching reality show, giving a peek into a slice of personal history. Maybe not that astonishing as a work of art, but giving a voyeuristic pleasure of reading someone’s diary, that presents both a personal moment as well as the entanglement in the global economy.
Chen Yin-Ju & James T. Hong | End Transmission | 2010, 15ʹ40ʺ; Chi-Wen
An eco-apocalyptic movie shot from the point of view of a God or outside observer, someone observing us and more intelligent than us. I see some kind of dark singularity theories as the inspiration, maybe a bit like Kevin Kelly’s idea of a global mind and swarm behavior, where the human-technological symbiosis creates a global mind, protecting but also subordinating each individual to its power. A bit stereotypical ambient “scary” music, but probably the video movie in this program.
Lee Ji-Hong | Looking for the Edge of Earth/ First Round/ Island | 2009, 18ʹ36ʺ; Eslite
A guy (small silhouette) walking on the beach, climbing on each element that appears on the horizon line. A poetic video, would do as a nice screensaver, but incredibly boring to watch in a theatre setting. The soundtrack consisted of natural sea sound, so I actually just closed my eyes and relaxed.
Lai Chih-Sheng | Vicinity I; 2011, 3ʹ33ʺ | Vicinity II; 2011, 3ʹ33ʺ; Eslite
Still shots of a laundry line on a rooftop with one pair of black trousers, and of a rooftop garden with leaves gently shaking in the air. Basically moving photographs. Nothing happening. Brought back nice memories of Taipei, and it was short enough to be bearable. It just could do without the kitschy artificial blur/vignette on the border, too much reminiscent of some cheap “artistic” Instagram effect.
Kuang-Yu Tsui | Youth; 2014, 2ʹ52ʺ; Invisible City: Sealevel Leaker; 2006, 4ʹ40ʺ; Eighteen Copper Guardians in Shao-Lin Temple and Penetration; 2001, 6ʹ43ʺ; The Welcome Rain Falling from the Sky; 1997, 1ʹ01ʺ; Eslite, Chi-Wen
Funny/stupid hidden camera / prank / youtube material. In the newest video (Youth), it’s evident that the artist has slightly matured, however he still seems to be just in the beginning of discovering video editing techniques and moving image compositing.
Minseung Jang | pitch-dark | 2014, 25ʹ; One and J.
A still Korean female expressionless face animated by moving lights and moving hands. The symmetry and precision, as well as the face without any emotions both seemed very “Korean” to me, so I found it representative of certain Korean culture stereotypes, the obsession with keeping one’s face and appearance spotless. Similar to the Sanglim forest video: A nice screensaver or gallery installation, but a straightforward torture of boredom in a screening setting. This video made me reach my limit and I escaped the screening room… well done.
