Research Topic – Gasometer

In my research for the Leave Your Body residency, I have been looking at Videotage’s quickly gentrifying neighborhood of To Kwa Wan*. As is usually the case with my practice, underlying historical narratives and connections that are not immediately apparent take precedence. The photo below is of the Towngas Ma Tau Kok Control Centre, located directly next door to the Cattle Depot Artist Village where Videotage resides.

Gasometers are large cylindrical metal tanks built as storage silos for gas for use as fuel.

There are several different types of gasometers. The type of gasometer with scaffolding, like the one at the Ma Tau Kok Control Centre, are predominantly located underground and would telescope up above ground as pressure from stored gas increased and subside as pressure decreased, storing and releasing gas through the day like a massive lung**. However, the use of gasometers has become obsolete in recent times as gas storage is largely done underground in high-pressure pipelines. As our age aligns development with green-washing, immunization, and escapism, the burying or obscuring of unseemly or obsolete systems is an ongoing process worth investigating.

*To be fair, one of the top three of Hong Kong’s pollutants is a result of its use of concrete, so most of the city is under an incessant pace of development and gentrification, which makes pointing out and finding methods of preserving historical landmarks all the more crucial.

**Thinking of the city as an organic machine, composed of its inhabitants and the infrastructure that meets their needs is a biomorphic analogy that runs throughout my practice.

Interview with artist, Angela Su

Four black and white images from Angela Su's film 'Mesures et Demesures'. Top left corner: four portraits of women in eight frames are having tests taken from skin and ears. Top right corner: a woman bends over backwards, wearing a long billowing skirt and bodice shirt (Victorian era). Bottom left: a blurry photo shows people sat in two rows posing for a photo. Bottom right: a group of people stand as though in the clouds, floating.
Angela Su, Mesures et Démesures, 2015, Single-channel video, 5’ 59”

Jamie Wyld: Thanks for being part of the Vital Capacities residency programme! Can you say a little about yourself and your work, perhaps in relation to what you’re thinking about doing during the residency? 

Angela Su: I am an artist who wears many hats. I make drawings, videos and I’ve also worked on a couple of publication projects. Science, the history of science, the impact of technology and the transformative body are the recurring themes in my work. As gaming and activism collide in recent years, I’ve become interested in the world of gaming and the idea of how coding can change not only the laws of the virtual world, but people’s behaviours in the physical world. On the other hand, as gamers provide entertainment and content for video games, the boundary of work and play has thus been blurred, these game labourers are often unpaid because the owners of the game often gain economic benefits from players’ contributions. I am fascinated by all these different aspects of gaming. It’s a huge topic.

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