Saturday, 19 January 2013

Of Human Scale and Beyond - HKArts Centre , Dec 2012



Leung Mee Ping: Out of place, 2005-2012, Video installation
I liked the form with which this work presented its idea. Eight screens play simultaneously. The handheld camera followed a single person around their city. The figures were lone individuals -possibly homeless- trapsing, staggering and in one case rolling on their back in streets in the large cities of Asia; Tokyo, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Beijing etc. Central to the composition was a video following a sacred indian cow walking freely through busy indian streets -in the same way as the human figures- eating from the street floors.


The form of this work had the ability to engage your eye in a similar way to when you are out in the street, in that the eyes can rest where ever they wish.
The inclusion of this piece in this exhibition seems to be for the vastness which the lone figures enhabited and navigated. To me it was a metphorical work responding to an idea of the human condition.

Aditya Novali: Asian (Un) real Estate Project, 2012
This wall mounted piece was illuminated with spot lighting from within its rooms evoking a night street scene. I got little from the content of the rooms themselves.But I did think the idea was effective replication of a scene. 

The piece worked better for me when stood away from and listening to the pitches of electric hum coming from a cupboard door opposite the piece. I suspect this was not an artistic or curatorial touch but coincedence. But this elememt of the real life to me lended the work so much more atmosphere than if the room were silent. The real life sound track of elecrical buzz, as if you really were standing outside of a tower block in the night. Wondering of the mass of lives playing out inside the generic concrete block.




A nicely finished model staircases at either
end of the building lit by small spots
illuminating textured black gloss, breaking
up the cleanness of the models lines.

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