Freezing the Vanishing 凝積消弭
Freezing the Vanishing — documenting the flux through bodily involvement
Let's talk about time, community, nature, and art.
【 Vanishing 】
Everything begins with memories.
Three years ago, the Netherlands. I started my research journey, focused on developing participatory art by ‘using’ nature as the material. For those event-based workers who may agree already, the limitation of community art lies in the ‘one-off’ enjoyment with the participants. Every event happens only once. Mostly, the documentation of activities is kept merely in images, texts, or whatever second outcome. Unlike other mediums of art, such as painting or sculpture, the later audience usually finds it difficult to regain the feelings and experiences brought by the works at that time.
I noticed that this mode of presenting ‘the past events’ is similar to the individual nourishment in reality. We are used to sharing stories on social media. While the images of momentous moments are circulated on the internet, the meaning of important things is quickly consumed. These products, maybe, become a part of the person's value. Eventually, we all forget.
The word of title, ‘弭 (sound: Mai)’, means the ‘decoration’ at the end of bow.
【 Freezing 】
We live in a variation that is filled with moments.
To cite from my thesis (of the same title), these every-second-vanishing moments can be referred to as ‘events’ in quantum physics, as ‘happenings’ in art, as ‘Dharma’ in Buddhism. So I ask, being in the constant flow of time, how can I respond to these encounters through actions, in order to define the present?
Is it possible to credit a moment in a slightly different way?
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Dates: 11 August 2021 Wed
Time: 7:45 pm
Venue: ACO Bookstore, 14/F 365 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Lecture Performance by Sin Wah Lai
Artists in Conversation
Guest: Ricky Yeung Sau Churk (artist, educator)
Registration: https://forms.gle/AQTaqbES7V1JoGrQA
Inquiry: Facebook Page @Life is art in practice
Venue Sponsor: ACO Bookstore
*The event will be conducted in Cantonese, and partly in English
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