Respond 回應

Every day, millions of people across the globe experience extreme changes to their physical environment as a result of man-made or natural disasters, where borders are constructed and boundaries are exacted. Often, people are forced to directly respond to the situations imposed on them in order to create an improved environment and a future for themselves and their loved ones. 

The selected works in this section explore how individuals or groups of people have responded to changes in Southeast and East Asia as a result of war, border conflicts, social oppression or urbanisation. The artworks compel the audience to see the region through the lens of the artists, and to examine and understand the actions people choose or are forced into – be it escaping and migrating across states, becoming self-sustainable in an overpopulated land, or simply bridging the divides through a communal meal. We ask the viewer: how would you respond when confronted with the same situation? 

Tiffany Chung  (Vietnam/USA) 

km 0 - Son’s Story
2017
HD video, colour, audio
33:19 minutes

km 0 - Son’s Story encapsulates the experience of about 450,000 ethnic-Chinese Vietnamese, who were expelled from Vietnam starting in 1978 and during the following years, as war erupted between China and Vietnam at the northern border in 1979. As political situations worsened, Son and his family were forced to go overland to China, leading to many complicated border-crossing and boat journeys back and forth between Vietnam, China, and Hong Kong that Son undertook from 1978 to 1997.

Please refer to this longer description by the artist for more context about the work.

Artist Biography

Tiffany Chung is an artist noted for her interdisciplinary and research-based practice, using cartographic drawings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and theatre performances that examine conflict, migration, displacement, urbanisation and transformation in relation to history and cultural memory.

Find out more about the artist here.

Li Yongzheng (China) 

Feast
2021
Dual screen video with sound
13 minutes

This film contains scenes some people may find distressing, including the ritual slaughter of an animal. 

Feast is set in Xinjiang, an area that is off-limits to Western journalists and film-makers. In September 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the artist and his team drove more than 3,000 kilometres and trekked through deserts, canyons, grasslands, and the Gobi Desert. Arriving in Xinjiang, they dined with the Uyghur people in a desert gorge. 

Artist Biography

Li Yongzheng is a conceptual artist with an interest in Western and Buddhist philosophy, as well as social issues in a society undergoing seismic change due to unstoppable forces of globalisation and urbanisation. 

 Find out more about the artist here. 

Lo Lai Lai Natalie (Hong Kong)

The Days Before the Silent Spring 
2021
5-channel video installation with sound
59:07 minutes

Click here to view the full transcript of the artwork.

In this work, the artist weaves together a spectrum of footage shot from different points of view in an homage to the decade-long history of the farming collective Sangwoodgoon (Hong Kong), to which she belongs. The videos reflect on the multitude of worlds tied together and the myriad life-forms germinated by the practice of farming.

Artist Biography

Lo Lai Lai Natalie is an artist and farming practitioner with an interest in the development and construction of nature. Her work uses photography, video and installation as a means to interact with nature.

 Find out more about the artist here.