Wang Tuo: Site, Past and Loneliness @Blindspot Gallery HONG KONG
It has been the fourth iteration for Blindspot Gallery to play the summer video screening programme since 2018. Same as the past and its characteristics, it would be divided into various sections. For this year, the curator, Nick Yu, was divided into three categories based on artists' work. He categorised the following specific themes: Animations and Hybrid Forms, Hope and Resistance, Spotlight: Christian Jankowski and Wang Tuo. The entire exhibition was mainly divided into three zones. It included not only Wang and Christian's works but also from Luke Casey, Yuk King Tan and Eason Tsang Ka Wai. For this review, I will examine Wang's practices contextually and analyse the interaction between the space and his video work.
Wang's "Smoke and Fire" captured my initial attention after stepping into the venue. Site, past and loneliness are the common elements among Wang's practices, no matter "Smoke" or his latest work, "Tungus". He merges mythology, history and himself together as a whole, and that can be clearly seen in the work "Smoke" particularly. Overviewing his practices, he aims to recreate a story which includes half-truth facts. One point worth mentioning was he chose a relatively flat and emotionless tone to depict the story, more like a "deadpan" feeling, whilst using a narrative perspective. The play of narration plays an important role in this video work as it can massively change the general feeling of an artwork. Unlike linear narrative, Wang adopted a chaotic and unorganised approach to tell the story and recomposed his memories which have his own arrangement.
I would say falling into infinite darkness is the major adjective for this exhibition. It was designed to induce audiences immersed in darkness, so as to cooperate with the artists' work. For Wang's practices, darkness is essential for him to further extend. From the above point of view, immersive experience has been considered one of the important elements when we mention media arts practices. Wang's practices successfully conveyed this message not only to the audiences but also to the media art artists. Wang's video practice and the exhibition venue echoed each other perfectly compared to others, perhaps, that is the reason why Wang's video work was placed in front of the gallery's main entrance.
Written in Sept 2022