To Love, To Be… 愛，存在 …
This photo montage sequence presents some of my confusion and thoughts about time and human existence. I have created this work rather fortuitously. The opening photo of graffiti (the word “Red Pill” and a heart) was found by chance as I roamed about photographing, not fully aware of how much this image affected my thoughts.
Then I found myself watching The Matrix series and I repeated the fourth episode. My interest is on how the world in The Matrix is presented. What struck me most is the scene about choosing between Red Pill and Blue Pill, a decision about facing an uncertain future or staying in a beautiful prison. For Neo, the main character, a decision has been made even before he makes his own. I have never spent much time thinking about time and free will and the fact that the future is already condemned. Is the “present” followed by “future” really as it is, or just how we perceive time? The Matrix contradicts my common sense. I have always thought, after Sartre, that existence precedes essence. Now, what if there is no before and after? Does free will still mean anything?
There is little progress in thinking through all this except the mystery of our existence remains – I feel being lost in a big maze, not knowing if there is an exit. We will never perceive time outside of it.
The big blur around me took me to the thought of “50 years remaining unchanged” and someone who says, “Love you for 10000 years.” The former is a story I am part of whereas the latter is a line from Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express (1994). But how can I make sense of 10000 years, literally?
What I could preserve in my photo sequence is the confusion about time and human existence, and I could only show it as it is. Amidst absurdity, I need love to survive whatever kind of world I find myself in. Montage in this work cannot be understood as continuity editing, but neither am I after Eisenstein as I do not share his affective intention and I don’t want “clash” to be the general sentiment of this work. All I did was to sculpt time, inspired by Tarkovsky and that my work would hopefully take me a step closer to the truth of existence.
BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介
“I am just an art student who does not know much about art. Videography and photography are what I am passionate about, though my skills are still quite rough. I seldom do planning when I create my artwork. All I do is simply follow my heart. I hope my artwork will be able to respond to the absurdity of human existence.” – Tang Ka-hei
Conversations
L: The spaciousness between pictures allows me to dwell in to think of just anything. And, strangely, I do not feel you have cued me in any specific direction, neither time nor love. But yes, I exist while following your steps. The first image to me is magic. I wonder if there are other spots to insert this image and how it could have worked. This image sequence is very future-oriented to me. I would have loved to learn more what love means to you.
“Zemblanity” is the antonym of serendipity. It means making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occur by design. In this work, zemblanity is the protagonist’s discovery of the tragic destiny he has to face.
Several works I’ve seen have inspired Zemblanity:
1. Chinese Odyssey Part 1: Pandora's Box 《西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒》(HK, 1995)
Joker (played by Stephen Chow), with the help of a Pandora's Box that becomes a time portal with moonlight, travels back in time to save his lover's life, and he ends up traveling back to 500 years ago.
2. My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday (2016) is a 2016 Japanese romantic movie in which the two protagonists (starring Komatsu Nana 小松菜奈 and Fukushi Sota 福士蒼汰) live in parallel spacetimes and can only meet for 30 days every five years.
3. La Jetée (1962, French science fiction, dir. Chris Marker) describes a prisoner after World War III being turned into a test subject for Scientists studying time travel so as to save the present with the past and the future.
In place of the usual emphasis on fate-encounter and inseparability of two persons in love, I have adopted “time travel” to be my main narrative strategy.
BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介
Christy Tam (TAM Lok-yee) is in her second year majoring in Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. She is a well-rounded learner in art, including photography, videography, design, drawing and music. Fascinated by expressionism, she is now an enthusiastic explorer of different dimensions of arts and strongly inclined to finetune ways she could deliver her thoughts and articulate her experiences through artistic means.
Conversations
L: I follow the “time travel” structure you have set up. My experience going through your journey is more like finding myself in a labyrinth and I do not expect any way out. Perhaps “time travel” and “labyrinth” are two sides of the same coin in this piece? Breaking away from a uni-diretional vector of time results in spatial reorientation that starts with breaking away from linearity, a single, resulting in many possible back-and-forth routes?
I also couldn’t help wondering: is someone else’s death our only point of our awakening?
This piece comes from my constant encounter of difficulties in interpersonal relationships. It occurs to me that people often make friends with hidden purposes though some genuinely care for others. This work speaks of my ideal image of true friendship and deep relationship.
All the pictures are my own hand-drawn work. I keep the two characters in fixed postures throughout with variation in other elements so as to call attention to the passing away of time, and also to facilitate viewers to notice the changing details. The pictures grow thicker, but also darker, and provoke more questions about relationships than my own answer.
BIOGRAPHY
創作者簡介
I am LAW Yee-lam, a Year 3 Material Science and Engineering student from the City University of Hong Kong. With no previous formal art education from schools due to reality issues, drawing is always one of my hobbies. To explore art related areas, minoring in creative media allows me to fulfil my dream. I hope I can discover more about myself.