Features artasiapacific.com^111(Previous spread)
NOUS NE NOTONS PAS LES FLEURS, FORT
RUIGENHOEK, 2011, view of participatory
performance with installation of growing
flowers, 24-hour, security camera and monitors.
Courtesy the artist and Osage Gallery, Hong
Kong, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Kaap.
(Opposite page)
LURE, 2009, mixed-media installation,
dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist
and Osage Gallery, Hong Kong.
(This page)
UNTOLD MOVEMENTS ACT 1:
NEITHERLAND, WHITHERLAND,
HITHERLAND, 2015, 32-channel sound
installation, dimensions variable. Photo
by Justin Malinowski. Courtesy 4A Centre
for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney.scientists concluded to be the source of the famous 1977 radio signal
from outer space—until now, this radio signal is the only near-
evidence we have that there may be extraterrestrial life with similar
intelligence to us, that we are “not alone” in this universe. The dome
responds to the viewer by activating constellation lines between
the stars that illuminate words, which you can decipher and read
by seeing the dome’s “reflection” on the ceiling. This “reflection” is
actually a live-camera feed from the other site, and the participant’s
image is also being cross-fed there. So, instead of seeing yourself
in this “reflection,” you might only see the object, perhaps with
someone else next to it.
Under the Sun (2017) is an installation embedded in a staircase,
consisting of videos on the walls, of eyes that look at you as
you climb up or down. When you reach the top of the stairs, you
encounter a locked door with a peephole. Looking through it,
you will see a room, a behind-the-scenes type of space, filled with
process sketches and prototypes of Not Alone and objects related
to the other works in the exhibition. A monitor on the table inside
the room will also show your own peeking eye looking back at you,
and this image-capture is also fed to the images of the eyes lining
the walls of the staircase.
By building a staircase there will be questions of accessibility,
both literally and metaphorically—of who will and will not be
able to see the work, of who will and will not be able to form a
complete understanding by experiencing or not experiencing
the project in full. It also introduces the questions of exclusion
and secrecy. It is interesting to think that secrets are often treated
like a closed box, whose dimensions fade over time to become a
two-dimensional image, merely black and white, lacking depth
and complexity, like family photographs that lose sharpness or
color over the years.
These ideas are discussed in the video installation that is also
called 1001 Martian Homes (2017), which is also set just over three
generations from now, where 2017 is in the past. This is a series
of short, staged interviews with people sharing their family histories
and their experiences of settling on new ground, conveying a sense
of the passing down of stories, secrets and memories. It also mixes
in other footage like the building process of Not Alone and the
whole exhibition set up, as well as my 75-year-old pianist mother
and I rehearsing Gustav Holst’s The Planets (1914–16) on two pianos,
and footage of actual Mars expeditions. At certain points, the video
cuts to a live-stream of the screening space where you’re watching
it, showing you watching yourself, and then cuts again to a live-
stream from the twin screening space, creating a recursive moving
image. This recursive element is a common thread in all three
works—reflecting back and forth, across time and space.
“When we think
of borders, we tend
to think of spatial
territories related to
geography and land
on Earth. But as
humans, we don’t
only exist in space.
We also exist in time.”