TKG+ Projects is pleased to present aVanTGaRde oN sPeEd, the solo exhibition of Hong Kong-born artist Samson Young, which opens on May 16, with an opening reception and live performance by Young and artist Huang Dawang on May 23 at 4:30 p.m. As the experimental platform of TKG+, seeking to expand the scope of the white cube, TKG+ Projects invites curator Jau-Lan Guo to initiate a dialogue with Young beginning with the question, “Can sound be a weapon?” and present three sound installations that show how Young responds to the wave of recent social changes in Hong Kong.
Can sound be used as a weapon? In aVanTGaRde oN sPeEd, Young presents three sound works from 2014-2015 at TKG+ Projects in Taipei. The avant-garde here does not only pay homage to the artistic Avant-garde (uppercase) of the early 20th century, but also to the more archaic military terminology of the avant-garde (lowercase) of the frontline forces. ”On Speed” conveys nuances of the drug culture, of acceleration, of being frenetic and crazed. Tales of frontline soldiers being drugged are not unfounded. Who gave them the drugs? And what was the rationale? In addition to the allusion to political agendas in art, the avant-garde here represents lines of strategy drawn in the sand specifically with Hong Kong as a designated site, an exercise in sound production with the colonial and post-colonial global geopolitics as the backdrop.
Since Young’s work Liquid Border in 2013, the Hong Kong society has experienced the shock of an “occupy” movement. Young does not consciously embrace an intention to reform, nor does he attempt with an idealistic naïveté to reform society in the name of art. Based on his earlier works such as 17 and I am thinking in a room, different from the one you are hearing in now: homage to Alvin Lucier, to Signal Path II: Sinister Resonance, we can regard these as the artist’s meta-thoughts on music composition.
How can a composer transform a skillful classical musician into a cyborg? How can music be composed for the seemingly unreliable human mind, inaccurate signals, and inexact and inconsistent performances? How can a collaborative relationship on listening occur in the open space of a gallery, without its production process being necessarily transparent to the present audience? These experiments deal with the spatial and penetrative aspects of sound, the relationship between the artist and the audience, the unreliable human brain, and inaccuracies of music composition.
Samson Young
Deeply influenced by his formal training of classical music composition, investigates the auditory experience through means of visual and emerging technologies. Blending diverse techniques, his practice centers on a unique cross-media experience that defy labels of classical music and visual arts. Recent solo exhibitions include MTVs: Samson Young's screen-based works 2006-2015 (a.m. space, Hong Kong, 2015); Pastoral Music (Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2015); I wanted to see everything: the Liquid Borders Project 2012-2014 (a.m. space, Hong Kong, 2014); On the Musically Beautiful (Goethe-Institute, Hong Kong, 2013); Machines for Making Nothing (Cogut Center for Humanities, Brown University, Rhode Island, USA, 2011)
Acknowledgement | KHS, Majestic, Digital Art Center, Department of New Media Art of TNUA, YiBenBook