Month: January 2016

Homeward Swirls (Film Short)

卷土重来: 记忆的投影 (Homeward Swirls: A Projection of Memory)

Digital Video and Stopmotion, 04:55mins, 1280 x 720 pixels

躺在地上,对着风扇,试想如果风不再吹?伸出手,却捕捉不了它。追,不禁跃入想象的汹涌,记忆的涟漪。也许,也许这一切只是一种投影。影片播完了,离席去向何处?忙得晕头转向,才了解到有多时没真正回家里走走。卷土重来吧,我这归来的孩子。

When the swirls of imagination and memory coincide in incandescent flashes, will I still know every inch of home? I embark on a homeward swirl in a projection of memory to a most familiar yet unfamiliar version of my house. Have I awoke on a Saturday having returned home the night before, or am I really just lying in my campus residential hall room tired from a session of area cleaning?

a film by Fabian Kang

 

 

 

______________________________

______________________________

just some interesting things:

20160130_001620

this scene was filmed from this angle:

20160130_001548

I certainly was a little apprehensive as I looked upon my camera hanging from its precarious position, but it was a good venture. I enjoy finding cheap methods for effects and Film back in its experimental days really intrigues me with that charm of hurried and effective film solutions.

The reason for these shots to be emphasized a lot is

Screenshot 2016-01-31 00.12.00

When I am alone, I really like to dance my fingers on surfaces to create some sounds just to break the silence. So I thought that it would be an interesting way of “walking home”, as the representation of home going is a rather surreal one in my film.

At 03:35 of the film, you might notice something a little perculiar about this shot.

Screenshot 2016-01-31 00.02.03

Apart from the different presentation of the screen where I had it split into 2 parts, there is actually 2 frames where my parents are framed in the shot. Working on this film made me think that not only I have spent less time at home, but I really do see / interact with my parents a lot less these days hence that split second.

 

Made for SAM: First visit of 2016

残响世界(realm of reverberations) by Chen Chieh-Jen, 2014, Video installation with four blue-ray films and documentation, 23:56, 26:07, 23:33 and 26:56 mins

One of the works I would love to talk about in the “Time of Others” is 残响世界 (realm of reverberations) by Chen Chieh-Jen. I particularly enjoyed this work by this energetic artist whose artistic practice has been much centered around the biopolitical issues of globalised Taiwan. The setting of the work is the Losheng sanatorium which was built during the Japanese Colonization to house lepers. The place is however being demolished to pave the way for a new metro station. Chen’s work is a documentation of this event, a vent for the emotions of the previous occupants as their long regarded sanctuary faces erasure along with the memories built around it.

A series of photographs at the entrance served as a prelude which drew me into the projection room to view the film. Usually video art fail to impress anything much on me. However, this work is certainly emotionally engaging as I can feel a genuine emotion from the person behind the lens and not just a pretentious attempt to be artsy. The film is very de-saturated, there is a melancholy and slow feel to it. The music creates a throbbing undertone which incessantly builds up an aura of uneasiness and intrigue. Camera angles are very voyeuristic, mostly framing the characters as we walk along with them to see the last of the sanatorium. I felt like I was a ghost watching their struggle with the reality of erasure. I was just short of immersing in the original on-site installation. This image below is actually quite sad, the audience are mostly the people of the sanatorium watching a film featuring them as they are “their only audience”.

Finally I would add that, I refer to this work using the Chinese title, not just because it is in Mandarin, but this expression in the language resonates more in my engagement with the work.

“torri” photo series by Shitamichi Motoyuki, 2006-1012, 5 photographs, C-type print, 100 x 150cm

Another work which stirred some interest for me is this little photo series by Shitamichi Motoyuki. We are looking at only 5 of many photos he took over the course of 6 years. Their titles are “Taichung, Taiwan”, “Saipan, USA”, “Saipan, USA”, “Geomundo Island, Korea”, “Sakhalinskaja, Russia” from left to right, all of which are places that imperial japan once stepped a foot in. The recurring imagery of the “torri” which japanese for “gate”, is the evidence leftover of the enormous presence of the imperial might. These silent guardians once held a meaning as the borders of a great empire but now which the change of borders and the tide of time, their very existence is being erased.

In the 3 photographs on the right you can see the physical torri rather clearly. The middle of those 3 is hidden by the vegetation but it’s form is still not eluded too much. I looked at these 3 first, as it was immediately recognizable that the “torri” is the main subject and recurring theme that binds these images in the artist’s narrative. Therefore the 2 on the left puzzelled me as I did not see a simmilar structure of the “torri”. Then I realized that it was the artist’s great use of chance and framing. The rightmost one shows people sitting on a bench in a park. Closer inspection reveals that the bench is actually the “torri” but it has fallen on it’s side and this convenient piece of rubble doubles up as a seat for the park-goers. The second one is totally missing the “torri”, however there is a strong use of directional lines and we are drawn up the staircase placed in the centre of the image, where at the end the trees frame the sky into a gate, metaphorically suggesting that the “torri” used to be and now ceases to be.

Overall I felt  the exhibition to be rather incomprehensible, some works were unengaging and affected my perception of them as only upon reading the explanatory text could I try to piece a muddled idea of their meanings together. However the afore-mentioned work are certainly effective as I was visually and emotionally engaged in an artistic dialogue with the artist without need of his physical presence or aid of exposition.

edis rehto eht morf olleh

Hello my name is Fabian.

This is a page of visual brainstorming for the little hello exercise and the 3 outcomes are below:

Screenshot 2016-01-25 22.13.14Screenshot 2016-01-25 22.14.14

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will proceed to talk about 2 of them. This one is called “tip of the iceberg” which I used a visual metaphor of an iceberg for myself. So if you flip the card to the other side, you can see that the surface is not everything. So if you do get to know me more, then hello from the other side indeed.

 

Screenshot 2016-01-25 22.13.25 Screenshot 2016-01-25 22.13.29

And this one is my favorite out of the 3. A little quick sketch of the pen I use, with my artist signature. I feel that my drawing style and my signature are very singular aspects of my artistic expression and experiences insofar, certainly a great way to introduce myself to those whom I’ve yet to acquaint with.

Screenshot 2016-01-25 22.13.20

 

Hello my name is Fabian.

I like to draw with pilot G2 pen.

I do not know how to waltz or to salsa.

The G2 pen is the only pen I know how to dance with.

Creativity splutters from this handheld fountain of ink.

I am Fabian. Nice to meet you.

groovy monday

Hello,

I am Fabian and here is my idea of dancing:

 

my mother always bade me have an umbrella ready when going out. It is good advice.

and this (below) is my favorite project from last semester, it is a group film project titled “En-Scene”. I’m not going to tell you what it is about, you have to watch it yourself, but it is definitely cooler than my umbrella dance.

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/mzaw001/2015/11/17/g7-final-project/

Also,

would like to share another project I did with a couple of friends for the N.E.mation competition. Here:

have a good start to the week and the semester!!