Gallery EXIT – Mark CHUNG, Silas FONG, Nicole WONG

Mark CHUNG
Silas FONG
Nicole WONG

29 July – 19 August 2017
Opening: Saturday, 29 July 2017, 4 – 6 pm
Gallery EXIT, 3/F, 25 Hing Wo Street, Tin Wan, Aberdeen, Hong Kong
Hours: Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm

*Nicole WONG’s artwork, “I will tell you in person” will be performed on a violin during the exhibition opening.

Gallery EXIT is pleased to announce a group exhibition featuring the work of three Hong Kong based artists, Mark CHUNG, Silas FONG and Nicole WONG. The exhibition will open on 29 July 2017 and remain on view through 19 August 2017. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, 29 July from 4 to 6 pm.

Although each of them has their own unique voice, all the artists showcased in this exhibition hail from a new generation that has grown up during the multimedia era. The omnipresence of images, videos and other kinds of information, easily accessible through the internet, has shaped their interdisciplinary approach to art-making. All are comfortable working in different formats and are at home in a variety of mediums, including installation, video, photography and performance art.

The work of Mark CHUNG revolves around light and the passage of time. In “dontletthesunbreak.ooo”, for instance, he makes use of publicly accessible webcams from different time zones to follow the sun on its apparent journey around the globe. At varying times depending on their location, these webcams show streaming images of the sun just as it is setting in the respective country. By linking video segments from different places together, CHUNG creates a sequence of images in which the sun never disappears below the horizon. This perpetual sunset challenges our conception of time: While the webcam footage is live and therefore represents a consistent reality, it nevertheless contradicts our own experience of time which is based on the daily cycle of morning, afternoon, evening and night.

Silas FONG is interested in our struggle to remain calm and focused in an urban environment flooded with information. He often explores this problem with the help of found objects drawn from the world of technology. The video “Focus Test”, for example, consists of a series of tests charts for cameras. Their geometrical patterns, designed to determine the focussing ability of optical lenses, are equally challenging to the human eye. FONG’s fascination with test patterns is also evident in “Nozzle Check/Head Alignment”, a printout whose original purpose was to verify the proper function of a printer. Its fragile array of colour fields and lines is a constant reminder of how little it takes to become misadjusted, for both machines and humans.

Using mediums ranging from video to performance, Nicole WONG examines communication and the ways in which it can become disrupted. One of her works, “I will tell you in person”, is inspired by an audio clip featuring the call of a now-extinct bird species. Transcribed into a musical score, the bird call will be performed on a violin during the exhibition opening. The reconstruction is doomed to remain incomplete, though: Before they went extinct, male and female birds of this species used to sing in duet – in the surviving audio clip, however, only a single bird can be heard. The unanswered call seems to foreshadow the disappearance of the entire species, and it is this sense of loss that gives Wong’s work its power. In the artist’s eyes, communication is a fragile thread. Once it is broken, the meaning it was meant to convey may be lost forever.

 

鍾正
方琛宇
王思遨

2017年7月29日至8月19日
開幕：7月29日(星期六)下午4時至6時
地點：安全口畫廊香港香港仔田灣興和街25號大生工業大廈3樓
辦公時間：星期二至六 上午11時至下午6時

*王思遨的作品《I will tell you in person》將以小提琴進行即場演奏。

安全口畫廊最新聯展呈獻鍾正，方琛宇，王思遨三位香港藝術家的全新作品。展覽於2017年7月29日至8月19日開放，開幕酒會在7月29日（星期六）下午4時至6時舉行。

三位藝術家成長於多媒體時代，每人均擁有一套獨特藝術語言。無處不在的圖片和影像，以及互聯網上垂手可得的資訊，逐步塑造其跨領域藝術取向。作品形式多變，涵蓋裝置、錄像、攝影及表演藝術等媒介。

鍾正的作品系列環繞光與時間的流逝。《不讓太陽交更》透過設置在不同時區的網路攝影機，直播各地的日落情景，藉此追蹤太陽的恆久軌跡。他將不同地點的影像碎片連接起來，構成不落夕陽的無盡播映。然而，永恆的日落卻與人對時間的概念有所抵觸：網路攝影機的現場直播，呈現出一個持續不斷的現實世界，但它卻與觀者建基於早夜循環的時間體驗互相矛盾。

在充斥大量資訊的現代都市環境，人們為了保持平靜心境和專注力，往往面對掙扎。方琛宇以此為創作題材，並從科技世界挪用現成物，探討這方面的問題。錄像作品《Focus Test》由一連串相機測試卡所組成，上面的幾何圖案原意為測試相機鏡頭的對焦度，但也是對觀者專注力的考驗。打印紙本作品《Nozzle Check/Head Alignment》也清晰體現了他對測試形式的興趣，其原本功能是檢驗打印機的性能，單薄隱現在紙上的排列色域與線條，顯示出機器和人類均易於進入錯誤調整的狀態。

王思遨涉獵錄像以至表演藝術等媒介，仔細探討溝通和其斷裂。其中一項作品《I will tell you in person》取材自絕種鳥類的鳴叫，鳥鳴被編成樂譜，並將於展覽開幕以小提琴進行演奏。但重組聲調的過程，註定落入不完整的宿命。該品種絕跡世上之前，雌鳥和雄鳥會進行二重合唱，但在最後的聲頻中，就只有孤鳥獨鳴。鳥的呼喚得不到回應，彷彿預示著整個物種的滅絕，無奈的失落感，為王氏的作品賦予力量。在藝術家眼中，溝通是一條脆弱的線，一旦崩斷，便會從此失去意義。