HONG KONG — I was standing on the beach, sand under my shoes. The water ran over me, but I stayed dry.
I was standing on “Hush ‧ Rush”, Chinese multimedia artist Choi Sai-hoof which has invaded a gallery of the Oil Street Art Space (Oi!) in Hong Kong. Oh ! Projector brings together four artists to meditate on ecological memory. Hong Kong artists Choi and Nadim Abbasbased in Shanghai Lu Yangand the New York-based interdisciplinary architecture studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro created large-scale environments flush with water, sand, and trees.
Oh ! occupies a former yacht warehouse that once overlooked the beach. Today, the North Point art space is cluttered with concrete and steel. Urbanization has turned the resort into a metropolis, and with no space to accommodate its growing population and economy, the city has turned to land reclamation to expand, pushing the beach further out to sea. from southern China.
Choi’s peaceful beach scene reminds us of Hong Kong’s roots. The water, illuminated in high definition by an LED screen on which you can walk, flows and ebbs calmly. Seagulls, produced with an ordinary searchlight, periodically fly overhead, faint in the sun.
But this landscape is only half of the installation. Behind a curtain is a dizzying, tilting, low-fidelity 3D rendering of the Hong Kong cityscape that viewers are forced to explore at breathtaking speed. LED screens wrap around the walls and floor, immersing you in a fully immersive world. Zooms and sudden changes in direction trigger motion sickness and vertigo. Peace has been exchanged for chaos.
I found calm in the courtyard of Oi!, where Diller Scofidio + Renfro merge ecology and technology with “Joyful Trees (Arbores Laetae)”. The studio has planted a towering grove of mature Chinese junipers, three of which are mounted on grassy turntables that spin slowly, twisting their roots into a knot, I imagine. They tilt at a subtle 10 degree angle, which only becomes apparent when you look for a moment and notice the tips playing hide and seek with the rest of the tree line. Architects want to evoke a magical, bustling forest, but to me, tottering trees foreshadow deforestation. Looks like they are on the verge of collapse, victims of logging.
The other two artists, Abbas and Lu, present surreal exhibitions focused on the future of the planet. In “The Stone of the Ventriloquists”, Abbas builds small villages in the sand. Structures, far from castles, could be homes in a post-industrialized world. Doors open to these communities, but a moving treadmill placed in front of the sand keeps an intruder in one place, unable to trample the fragile structures.
Lu, on the other hand, abandons Earth in favor of the Metaverse. DOKU Hong Kong Experience Center places DOKU, the artist’s avatar made by 3D scanning, in six digital worlds that represent the realms of Buddhist reincarnation. DOKU occupies his time performing traditional Balinese dance, but stares at the viewers with dead eyes that would not befit any Balinese performer. DOKU is disenchanted with the cyberpunk malaise in the background. The backgrounds oscillate between forest fires, bombed rubble and poisonous plants. As the Earth burns, so do the sacred worlds.
The Oi! Spotlight’s artists accept that the ecology has deteriorated, but rather than asking viewers to reverse human action, they describe ways to adapt to the future. If there are no more beaches and junipers, it might be time to get off that plane altogether and dance to the end of the Anthropocene.
Choi Sai-ho: Hush ‧ Rush continue at Oi! Warehouse 1 and Nadim Abbas: Stone of the Ventriloquists continue at Oi! Warehouse July 2 to 30. Lu Yang: DOKU Hong Kong Experience Center continue at Oi! Glassie until August 27. Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s Merry Trees (Arbores Laetae) remains visible until February 2025. All are located at 12 Oil Street, North Point, Hong Kong. The exhibits were curated by Joan Chung and curated by Oi!.
