Lisa Reihana: DigiRadiance—GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL

DigiRadiance: GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL, an immersive digital exhibition, features a newly commissioned multi-channel video installation produced by the acclaimed Aotearoa/New Zealand artist Lisa Reihana. This exhibition, curated by Tobias Berger, brings together the far-flung islands of Aotearoa/New Zealand and Hong Kong. Based on the moving yet tragic story of the sinking of SS Ventnor, the video immerses audiences in an extraordinary historical fiction from New Zealand to Hong Kong. The artist’s work draws on what is shared by these islands, including a strong maritime legacy and a history shaped by colonial forces—in a way following her distinctive blend of history and fiction in her large-scale video installation, in Pursuit of Venus [infected] (2015-17), when she represented New Zealand in the 2017 Venice Biennale.

In DigiRadiance: GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL, Lisa Reihana explores issues surrounding foreign labour, longing, and displacement. The work takes us back to the late 1800s, shining light on the untold stories of Chinese gold miners who relocated to the Otago region on the South Island of New Zealand. Under tremendous hardship and severe living conditions, many died far away from their homeland and became “hungry ghosts”. Delving into this important part of history, Reihana revisits the story of the SS Ventnor, which in 1902 was en route to Hong Kong and Canton carrying coal and 500 boxes with the remains of Chinese gold miners. During a storm, the ship sank close to a Māori settlement south of Hokianga on the North Island of New Zealand, where the Māoris found and gathered the lost remains and buried them ceremonially according to their customs.

Taking this historic tragedy as a starting point, Reihana weaves a speculative tale for DigiRadiance: GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL. To tell the story, the artist uses impressionistic, theatrical imagery with first-person narration to reveal snippets of the saga, offering up four fictional characters: a Chinese merchant, a Maori Whine Wahine from Mitimiti who finds the bones on her beach, a female inmate incarcerated at Victoria Prison for stealing bread, and an Indian prison guard.

GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL is the second commission of DigiRadiance, a digital heritage programme transforming the F Hall Studio into an immersive project space. The ongoing project aims to reimagine and reinterpret the site’s historical buildings in a digital context, bringing visitors back in time in order to develop a deeper relationship with the buildings, and continue to value and treasure Tai Kwun. Last year, the inaugural exhibition used the radial plan prison of Victoria Gaol as a point of departure to revisit Tai Kwun’s prison history and its significance. This year, the project goes farther afield, seeking Hong Kong’s heritage beyond the city’s shores. Join the artist Lisa Reihana and curator Tobias Berger as Tai Kwun hosts an artist talk on 1 November 2024 at 5-6 pm. The session is open to the public and is free of charge. Please register on the Tai Kwun website.

DigiRadiance: GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL
Artist: Lisa Reihana
Curator: Tobias Berger
November 2–30, 2024
F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun