Twelve personal thought paths share the same space within a theatre box, each a unique stream of murmurs, together a torrent of existential quests. 十二串個性不同的思緒共享一個微型的小黑盒劇場，各有嗓音，合起來是洪流。態度的堅持，存在的疑問，主體的尋溯，無名渴求，生老病死。
+ + + + The Ventriloquists…Thinking Narratively 《腹語系。微敘思考》 4-19 July 2020 @ Floating Projects +++ Daily updates: Ventriloquists Series
Moving image works introduction 流動影像的介紹。。。
Click the individual titles to view the works.
CHAN Wing-shan Kimi: Unseen Life
A video pictogram of Yu Hua’s World Like Mist 余華：《世事如煙》圖像速寫
Unseen Life is a pictogram using animation as a form to present the plot of the short story. The title “unseen life” expresses the confusion characters feel about life — they have no hope and future. My pictogram demonstrates low color saturation to echo the overall ambience of Yu Hua’s narrative world. To enhance a sense of oppression, part of the original article is quoted as a background. Characters gradually disappear, which is a metaphor for death. Pop-up words present my impression and critique of the characters. Through my subjective views, the reader may contemplate the restless mood and perhaps to intensify it in my mind …
Andreas Schaub: KNOCK KNOCK
A montage video
Knock Knock as a montage sequence cuts through many layers of reality with a blunt object to access the raging ocean of collected experiences seething behind closed eyes. To an individual twisted and distorted by current political imbalances, as well as the inevitable search for identity, a knock indicates the desire to enter, “Would you let yourself in?”
CHAN Pui-sze, Louise: TURBULENT
Thought paths as a montage sequence
TURBULENT integrates found footage of scientific animation clips, old tapes, and photography. It explores life and death at the macroscopic level while touching upon basic intrinsic values, i.e. the pathos and ethoss of both pro-choice and pro-life stances towards abortion. The contrastive juxtaposition of reality and the imaginary creates narrative thickness of the montage sequence. The perspectives of the first-person and the third-person presented create multiple layers of the conscious and subconscious levels. The fetus as the main icon, mother, and woman weave through my work to open up the many perspective viewers may take.
TSANG Tak-shun, Gabriel: Sound of Sadness
A sight-and-sound montage sequence
Living under clinical depression is a struggle for millions of people in this world, myself included. In this project, I explore the state of a mentally unstable individual (me) in his worst state of mind. In this picture sequence, I have added grainy static effects and background noises. Pun not necessarily intended, there are always noises in your head, telling you negative things. People always ask, “Why don’t you just think of the bright side?” Truth is noises like “No.” and “You can’t.” — they are constantly blocking, suppressing any type of positive thinking that has the slightest idea of cheering you up in a desperate situation. In the last picture, the noises in the head get louder and louder, taunting and haunting the individual.
LEE Chi-yin, John: Memorial to the Pigeon
A thought path as montage sequence
This montage sequence presents the looping story of an elderly lady who constantly indulges in the memory of her departed grandchild. Dead Leaf and a pigeon are metaphors for the deceased. Most shots of the character were taken from a far distance with a normal lens to mimic a subjective perspective like you are accompanying this old lady but do not want to disrupt her. Sorrowful remembrance that never ends… — that’s her despair.
This work was inspired by my mother’s grief for losing her own mother and two other siblings in mainland China, all within just a year. For several times, a panic attack kicked in whenever I started to imagine — what if I had to live alone without any family members?
WONG Man-sze, Covis: Ilya 存有
A thought path as a sight-and-sound montage sequence
Ilya is about a ship sailing in the middle of the sea, passing through different spaces with different measures of “time”. The video is experimental and aims to explore the concept of time flow. Is time defined by the change of objects? How do changes in space change the flow of time? Does “time” necessarily exist as a noumenon and pass? What is the relationship between “time” and “our state of mind”? How we interpret the world affects our definition of time and memory.
CHENG Yuen-chung, Jayson: Remember
A montage sequence
The idea comes from my real life experience which is the difficult process of remembering a loved one who is no longer present. I shot all the photos with the same structure in a dark environment as portraits. This is to facilitate spectators to immerse in my work by following similar details that repeat from shot to shot. The horizontal trajectory of the work creates an overall narrative shape that turns remembering and memorizing to suffering. The eyes on screen are the transition moments that step by step intensify the effort to bring back people to be remembered.
WONG Lok-hang Parco: Verwandlung
Inspired by Kafka’s Die Verwandlung, I allow the character in this photo sequence to observe his life in an objective perspective by giving away his eye to an unknown artificial force. However the story can go either way from beginning to end, or from end to beginning. There are two relatively independent parts in this work — the establishment-final resolution sequence and the confrontation sequence, and both are reversible. I started with creating the confrontation sequence first, the mood from joyful to frightening, natural to artificial.
LAW Ho-yi, Woody: Heal Me
An image sequence
The artwork portrays a boy who suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) and commits suicides before his last dream. The artwork explores the question of committing suicide. Does choosing to die necessarily mean being irrational? If it is rational, why is suicide a sin to modern moral value? The artwork digs into the only question that human should think of – Should we commit suicide?
LO Ching-lok, Jacky: I Know
A video
I will know if I see it with my own eyes. If I didn’t see it, I would not believe it. That’s how we do it all the time. Our eyes are the most powerful tool for me to determine if something is right or not. However, who decides what we are seeing now?
Andreas Schaub: LIMBO
A photo montage
Limbo is a work of experimental photo montage about a dopamine-driven society and the dark side of the moon. The work’s horizontal narrative flow follows a 3-act structure while the vertical density of events resembles an intensifying waveform with abrupt transitions between the ups and downs. The perception of time is manipulated by the diminishing gaps between the awake state and dream state of the protagonist. Complete silence between scenes dissolves all points of reference that suggest the passing of time. The two altered states of consciousness are visualized by the rhythmical change of space from the tiny bedroom to the open sea. As images gradually blur, a psychedelic state intensifies through the ambient sounds’ shift from being representational to clash in abstraction. Montage indicates a special measure of time and space. The use of montage in this work highlights the autonomy of the individual moments to challenge realism which relies on continuity of space and time. As a result, it also constantly switches the viewer’s position, offering multiple points of view.
Jonathan Chan: Whisper
CHAN Mong-sum, Jonathan: Whisper
A generative, montage video
A whisper turns up. Familiar. Is it fantasy or memory? Uncertainty between desire and release. Mixture of chaos and peace. Your voice is the warmth of the sun, or the cold in a hollow. Or maybe, it’s just a dream. A generative video that briefly explores dream narratives. A small attempt to replicate the unconscious mind with sound, image and animation.
