Category: Studio

Location: Temple Grounds

by Seecum Cheung

Ancient temple hall; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019
Black and white image of a incense holder in an Chinese shrine, filled with candles, incense and ash
Shrine located at the entrance of Hubei Old Village; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019

Tenants & Leaseholders

by Seecum Cheung

Black and white image of two men sitting inside a shop cluttered with objects, both are smiling and waving to camera.
Black and white image, man looks to his left to face his aquarium which has a fish inside, floating next to a photograph of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping
One of the last remaining shop owners; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019
Black and white image of man looks to the right, at his outdoor butchers stall. Low level hanging lights and plastic bags are in the frame. He is wearing a warm coat suggesting that it is a cold day.
Black and white image of a man crouching down to cut up a piece of pork. There is a table with cardboard on the top which serves as the butchers main selling platform.
One of the last remaining shop owners due to the leaseholder’s being absent in claiming their plot; still from footage, filmed after Chinese New Years celebration, 11th February 2019

Khthon

by Joey Holder

Art installation containing insect genitalia silcone models, aquariums, lightboxes, wallpaper, UV polar print on fabric lightboxes, steel, glass, dead cactus, earth, driftwood

‘Khthon’

Installation: Digital prints, Lightboxes, fish tanks, silicon insect genitalia, earth, driftwood

2020

The Greek word khthon is one of several for “earth”; it typically refers to that which is under the earth, rather than the living surface of the land.

Reproductive forces are present throughout the work. The imagery in both the prints and lightboxes are created using ‘Artbreeder’ an online AI which mashes together photographs by multiple users to produce endless variations through infinite combinations.

Creating hybrid visions of chimeras, phantasms and abstractions, the Artbreeder AI uses a biological labelling system for it’s creative process – you can ‘edit genes’ and crossbreed, as well as view the family tree of image histories and relationships. Computation strives for biological variety.

Contained within the tanks are silicone models based on the formations of insect genitalia. The models express the myriad of exquisite forms and mating practices found in the animal kingdom which are often invisible to the naked eye. We often imagine what life is like on other planets, other worlds, yet what is present right under our noses is stranger than we can imagine, far more ‘alien’.

^^ Artist description

Mana

by Joey Holder

‘Mana’ is the name given to a force or power which is said to permeate the entire universe in Austronesian language and culture. It is an intentional force and something which is cultivated and possessed.

The piece takes the form of an altar with embedded symbology: a combination of hexagrams, sacred geometry and references to the Major Arcana Tarot cards – The Tower and The Sun. 

Throughout the video are a series of ‘sigils’ which are a type of symbol used in magick.

The video was made using text fragments from ‘The Book of Pleasure: Psychology of Ecstasy’ (1913) by Austin Osman Spare, who’s commonly regarded as the first “chaos magician”.

Using Spare’s words and methods, positive affirmations have been abstracted which are scattered throughout the film: “Life is a search for your truth, Sexual sorcery, Returns and unites, Free at any time, Revealed by all systems, Forget dependence, Somewhere unlearnt, What you wish to believe can be true.”

The symbols are layered over footage of sacred diagrams and twisting, squirming eels, snakes and nematodes that seem to be forming the shapes of the writhing symbols themselves.

The moon is layered over the composition, referencing the eight phases of the lunar cycle, that’s important for the timing of rituals and spells.

^^ Artist description

Eviction in Shenzhen: Part 1

by Seecum Cheung

Eviction in Shenzhen, 2019-Ongoing, is a long-term ethnographic series of experimental documentary films which follows the planned demolition of my fathers ancestral village of Hubei in Shenzhen, China as the government initiates a major redevelopment plan to take its place. The proposed project includes an impressive 830m tall skyscraper which will become the tallest building in the world accompanied with a modern shopping centre, restaurants, plus a small portion of Hubei Old Village preserved as a living museum and film location for hire. The new redevelopment will become one of China’s most prized architectural accomplishments, a visual spectacle, which pays homage to the economic miracle that is Shenzhen, as the city which led China to its new position as a global economical and technological power.

The films mark the eviction of the current tenants of the village who as low-income workers, are having to leave behind the cafes, food vendors, small businesses, residential homes and communities which they cultivated over a period of 10 – 20 years. Eviction in Shenzhen (2018-present) filmed over the course of this redevelopment period, will document these changes by recording the sociological make-up and ancient architecture of the village that is soon to disappear. 


The film is currently in development and will proceed in chapters as the project develops. ‘Eviction in Shenzhen: Part 1’ (2019 – Version 1) captures the residents of the area during a visit to the area in May 2018. The next chapter filmed during February 2019 features the area taken during Chinese New Year, with a near 90% of residents now fully evicted.

Directed, produced and edited: Seecum Cheung
Sound design: Natalia Domínguez Rangel

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