Blue Throat: A Profound Disruption
Blue Throat reflects on the upheavals shaped by geopolitical tensions and the global pandemic, which Lo Lai Lai Natalie and Wai Pong Yu situate within the context of Hong Kong.
Regional political turbulence and the global pandemic have jointly triggered a prolonged and intense disruption. Taking Hong Kong as an example, the deeply impacted sense of identity is interwoven within the profoundly disjointed local context. The attempts to reconnect people with the place go beyond the restoration of the original way of life, but also point to a paradigm shift in ontology, epistemology, and methodology, as a result of the tensions between the disruption and the “new normal”.
This exhibition presents the artists’ responsive creations to the social changes in Hong Kong in recent years, including Lo Lai Lai Natalie’s newly created video”The Messenger – Passerby in Our Battlefields” after receiving the the Gold Award in the Media Arts category at the Hong Kong Arts Centre’s ifva Awards, as well as Wai Pong Yu’s latest works from the “A Rhythm of Landscape” series previously exhibited at Art Basel Hong Kong. Simultaneously, with the curator’s research and writing on the historical texts of Chinese diaspora writers in Singapore, the exhibition’s focus on “disruption” transcends temporal and spatial limitations, shedding light on the profound human experiences along longer historical axes.
“Blue Throat” is a long-term research and curatorial project initiated by independent curator Chris Wan. Drawing on the imagery of the Hindu mythological figure Nīlakaṇṭha (also known as the Blue Throat), the project explores the eternal subject of emotional and bodily transformations among Chinese mobility, diaspora, and identity shifts within the context of modernity and globalisation. “Blue Throat: A Profound Disruption” marks the first overseas exhibition of the “Blue Throat” series, following the special group exhibition “Blue Throat: Start the Churning” at Art Central Hong Kong in April this year.
