As the arts scene heats up in Hong Kong before Art Basel here are two projects to whet your appetite
- Exit Strategies is a multimedia exhibition comprising video, sculpture, photography and sound
- Artificial Landscapes is an ultra high definition video installation on a 1,400 square metre screen
Asia’s largest high definition LED display in one of Hong Kong’s busiest commercial districts has been transformed into a public art installation to mark the beginning of this year’s Arts Month.
‘Artificial Landscape’, presented by SOGO and independent new media art outfit Videotage, is being shown on a 1,400 square metre 8K ultra high definition LED screen on the facade of Sogo shopping centre in Causeway Bay. A video artwork shows for three minutes on the hour from 6pm to 10pm every day, with a new video every five days.
One of the videos, O, takes drone footage of the familiar busy crossing outside Sogo and tracks the movements of the pedestrians, connecting them with dots and lines that almost appears to be happening in real time.
“It’s not like audiences have to go to the museum or the gallery, this is naturally embedded in our environment and in the cityscape,” says curator Isaac Leung from Videotage.
‘Artificial Landscape’ features digital works by four young artists – Carla Chan, Chilai Howard, Lawrence Lek and Shi Zheng – that present various approaches to the ideas of artificiality and landscapes, and challenge the way viewers think about their environment.
“It is an experiment on how video arts could engage with people’s everyday life and how people would rethink their relationship with architecture and screens apart from watching TV commercials one after another,” Leung says.