Leung Chi-Wo
(Inter)Viewing Possession/
看你看什麼是至愛
October 10 – November 10, 2009
Asia Art Archive
11/F Hollywood Centre,
233 Hollywood Rd,
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
http://www.aaa.org.hk
Artist Leung Chi-Wo presents a site-specific audio-visual installation at Asia Art Archive for the city wide project, October Contemporary 2009.
(Inter)Viewing Possession is an art project that considers the invisible links between the Archive and its community through the practice of collecting. Designers, shop owners, teenagers, homeowners, and residents from the surrounding Sheung Wan neigbhourhood have taken part in the project by sharing the stories behind their personal possessions through interviews. Inside eight view-finders installed at archive, the audience is confronted with re-written, fragmented texts based on personal stories and observations culled from the interviews, delivered via intertwined monologues by Leung Chi-Wo and his partner, Sara Wong. The work consciously attempts to transgress the boundaries between viewing and voyeurism, real and fictional, art and the everyday.
Keywords on (Inter)Viewing Possession | Artist Statement:
Colonial Asia Art Archive is located on Possession Street on the original Hong Kong waterfront where the British army first landed in 1841.
Art In contemplating works of art, we begin to think beyond what we see and experience.
Observation The basic activity when encountering something unfamiliar, but we can also observe the familiar for something different. AAA becomes an observation platform to see how the other sees.
See/seen Seeing and being seen.
Photography The certainty of the gaze whereas our naked eyes can only scan.
Value I try to learn about subjective value. It is the value being described but not justified.
Introspection When we talk to ourselves by pretending to talk to others.
Connection There are invisible connections between people and between AAA and its neighbours beyond their spatial proximity…. Seeing is the invisible link.
Voyeurism A voyeur sees another voyeur.
Private/pubic A performance which negotiates these two realms.
Fictional Facts exist but no fact is identified. Or it simply does not matter that facts were talked about in these interviews.
Interview The view in-between, or views between two people.
Monologue The subject is I.
Dialogue I and I.
Process/medium The manner of speaking is more interesting than what is said.
Transcribing It is a creative process to turn what you hear into something you would like to read.
Reading It is not role-playing but the replacement of someone’s presence with your own voice. That is to possess.
Image We treasure the image because sometimes it looks better than reality.
Imagine The best image exists when it is invisible, unrealized in the imagination.
Opposite field Il contro campo where we see each other, as if the photographer and the photographed swapped roles.
Artist Biography
Leung Chi-wo
Born in Hong Kong in 1968, Leung graduated with a MFA from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1997 after a photography study in l’Istituto per lo Sviluppo Socio-Economico dello Spilimberghese in Italy and an internship in the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, Belgium. He has exhibited in Hong Kong, New York, Melbourne, Tokyo, Oslo, Vienna, Hamburg and Toronto, etc. Awards received include the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship (1997), Urban Council Award of the Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial (1996) and the First Prize in Sculpture from the Philippe Charriol Foundation (1995). In 2000, he held a solo exhibition in the Queens Museum of Art, New York. In 2001, his site-specific project was exhibited in the Hong Kong Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
Special thanks to AAA student volunteer interviewers:
Damon Lee, Lee Wai-Shing, Charmaine Leung, So Wai-Lam, Nadia Wong, Trevor Yeung, Yim Yik-Ning
Further information:
(Inter)Viewing Possession – On-site Installation
Date: 10th October -10th November 2009
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm
Venue: Asia Art Archive
Artist Talk and Party
Time: 23rd October 2009 (6pm – 8pm)
Contact:
Asia Art Archive
11/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
http://www.aaa.org.hk
October Contemporary is a non-profit initiative, formed by various art organizations in Hong Kong, which organises a series of contemporary art events throughout the month of October.
The not-for-profit Asia Art Archive based in Hong Kong is one of the world’s most comprehensive and easily accessible resources for contemporary Asian art. More than a static collection of material, the AAA actively organizes exciting programmes and research projects.
For more information visit http://www.aaa.org.hk or +852 2815 1112.