“The spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living. (no. 2) "In this social domination by commodity-time, "time is everything, man is nothing; he is at most the carcass of time" (Poverty of Philosophy). This is time devalued, the complete inversion of time as "the field of human development. (no. 147, Chapter 6) (Guy Debord, "Society of the Spectacle")

 

 

 

 

 

《艺术教育》Part 1 / 第一部: 回轉狀觀 。空間實活。

01.2012 (version 2) / Hong Kong / 22m 19s / PAL / aspect ratio 4:3 / color / Stereo sound

[version 1 - ethnographic video version / 2011 / 26m 54s / PAL / 4:3]

A Linda Lai video

Synopsis
Reverting Spectacles is the first episode of video cycle, 'Art Education', which compiles scenarios of art-learning I have encountered as a practitioner and instructor of art. Nominal questions such as 'what is art?' and 'what is an art object?' gradually shift to 'where is art?' and 'when is something art?'

Reverting Spectacles is a video essay developed from my personal image archive of video diaries and found footage collected from my circle of acquaintances, upholding a species of experimental documentary that is entrenched in laborious visual ethnography. This video covers footage from 2000 to 2011.

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Artist’s Statement  
Reverting Spectacles: performing space contemplates the importance of performance – a unique way for local artists to assert our creative presence in the dense, pragmatic, surveyed urban space of Hong Kong. The studied episodes are interspersed with fragmentary images of 'world-class' art works my camera captured over the years, drawing the contrast between the mythical quality of the appearance of completed artworks and the labour involved in engaging space and performing selves in real time.

In response to Guy Debord’s critique of contemporary society of the spectacle, where the praxis of reality separates from the praxis of images, I revert to the very presence of the individual in action, even if it is just a limping step, a broken voice, a fragmented body, the impermanence of being. I want to honour the forgotten labour of time within and outside of modern production. Locations of our consumer culture evolve from a metaphor of material affluence to concrete places for interventionist tactics.

upper L - Festival Walk (State Change, Rodriguez and Paiva, 2008) / upper R - Homeless (Terence Chan) / lower L - Donut Fantasies (Reine Wong, Kongkee, 2004) / lower R - Time Square (State Change, Rodriguez and Paiva, 2008)

Researched, written, photographed and edited by Linda C.H. LAI
Additional footage: Hector RODRIGUEZ SUAREZ, Vasco PAIVA, Terrence CHAN

(in front of Sogo, 2000, Hong Kong)

Documented performances:
State Change (Hector Rodriguez and Vasco Paiva, 2008 / Hong Kong)
Homeless (Terrence Chan, 2009 / Hong Kong)
Drawing in Time (performance series by Anthony Leung, 2007 / Kaohsiung)
10 Hours of Chinese Contemporary History (Kith Tsang, 2007 / Kaohsiung)
[Projection-performance in front of Sogo] (Agnes Chan, Yip Man-wah, Ho Ting-shun, Annie Wan, Carol Chan, Angela Chiu, 2000 / Hong Kong)

Other art events:
The Cartographer (Man Kam-hung, Terrence Chan, Tai Koo Shing, 2010)
Take a ST/Roll: Donut fantasies (Reine Wong, Kongkee, March 2005)
Guangzhou Triennial 2008, Shanghai Biennial 2008, Schirn (Frankfurt), ZKM (Karlsruhe), Tate Modern (UK)