Video (published) / Floating Site (index)

72 Tenants and Object-logue / 2 looping videos installed as part of 1906-1989-2012
2012, Hong Kong
72-tenants objectlogue

72 Tenants (2012)

 

Object-logue (2012)

72 Tenants and Object-logue were two short videos on display as part of my large-scale mixed media, site-specific installation, "1906-1989-2012: Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Anji"', a 7m x 6mx 8m mixed media installation, commissioned for the 9th Shanghai Biennale 2012. Both videos draw their material from three films that speak of the ideals of neighborhood harmony: The House of 72 Tenants 七十二家房客 (1963, Dir. WANG Weiyi 王為一, Zhujiang Film Studio 珠江影廠Guangzhou, China), The House of 72 Tenants 七十二家房客 (1973, Dir. Chor Yuen 楚原, Shaw Brothers, Hong Kong) and Yamaha Fish Stall 雅馬哈魚檔 (1984, ZHANG Liang 張良, Guangzhou, China).

The two works are part of a wall set of framed objects in 1906-1989-2012: Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Anji (Shanghai, 2012) whereas they were adapted into installed objects in Mnemonic Archiving (Singapore, 2016).

In 72 Tenants and Object-logue are both found footage works on the pastoral ideals that link Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai. In these two videos, I break down story/plot-lines that idealize the practice of neighborly care. Instead, I draw upon the appearance of faces and things captured on camera from the 3 moments in history as they were captured and imagined on film, and turn to a phenomenological quest. I explore the anthropological value of the camera as it preserves the look of the past beyond the maker's intention, thus also an alternative way to celebrate cinema. I, too, liberate the actual camera presence of things and people from the constraints of discourse and story-telling!

 

72 Tenants 七十二家房客 (2012)

A Linda Lai video / 10m 5s / color+b/w / 4:3 / a found footage work /part sound / full video on Vimeo

**Renamed "House with 72 Tenants" in 2016 as an installed object in"Mnemonic Archiving: a Dispersive Monument" at Pearl Lam Galleries-Singapore

In this work, facial expressions of individuals and the choreographic ensemble of "ordinary people" framed by the camera subdue the binary of good and bad citizens. The aspired pastoral peace of a benevolent community narrativized by the filmmmakers gives way to my micro observation of mannerisms and stock personalities in popular entertainment. It is after all emtoions on a human face that comprise the potential of affect. (Linda Lai)

KEYWORDS: found footage, Hongkong cinema, Chinese cinema, visual ethnography, narrative game, visual narrative, neighborly love in Chinese films, 72 tenants mythology, montage art

Sound/Editing/Research: Linda LAI 黎肖嫻 /

 

 

Object-logue 物物語 (2012)

A Linda Lai video / 7m / color+b/w / 4:3 / a found footage work / part sound / full video on Vimeo

A deliberate deviation from pastoral ideals that link Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai, I create a visual narrative that shows ordinary objects as I choose to see them. Deprived of the narrative functions imposed on them, I want them to come alive as a phenomenon, each on their own. via a montage method that fragments rather than connects. Poetry arises from their minute motions, forming the dialectics of identity and physicality.

Object-logue follows up on my experiment in 72 Tenants to document photographic images that preserve the looks and appearance of the past as they dwell in things and objects. (Linda Lai)

KEYWORDS: found footage, everyday objects, Hongkong cinema, Chinese cinema, visual narrative, visual ethnography, montage art

Sound/Editing/Research: Linda LAI 黎肖嫻 /

 

installed-72 fish-skinning
72 Tenants as a wall object in 1906-1989-2012: Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Shanghai - Anji (2012-13) A close-up sequence of a fishmonger's hands unscaling a fish in Yamaha Fish Stall (1984)
desktop music-instrument
A shot of a tea-table top in Wang Weiyi'sThe House of 72 Tenants (1963) A hand on a percussive instrument in Wang Weiyi'sThe House of 72 Tenants (1963)

 

***The 1963 version of the 72 Tenants was a film comedy based on a popular comic theatre number in Shanghai (上海滑稽戏) in the 1940s. In addition to the works cited in my work, there are more recent iterations of this theme and title, including the very recent The House of 72 Tenants (2008), a collaboration between the Guangdong Television Station and Zhujiang Film Studio, with the late 1940s as its backdrop, and 72 Tenants of Prosperity (2010, dir. Eric Tsang) a HK comedy co-produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio, HK TVB, UFO, Sil-Metropolie Organisation and Sun Wah Media Group, among others. The 2010 HK piece uses Shaw Brothers' 1973 film as a blueprint.