Young, layered and not quite restless
An adaptation of Samson Young’s much-lauded Venice Biennale show opened at HK’s M+ Pavilion recently. Chitralekha Basu got to peek inside the artist’s mind where too much seems to be going on all at once.
Why call it a “world tour” if you’re showing only in Venice and Hong Kong?
The tour happens inside the head of the fictional character, Boomtown Gundane. I guess we are creating the impression that the show has been to more places than Hong Kong and Venice. The singer Michael Schiefel (who plays the role of Gundane in videos and did a live performance) and I have collaborated often. In my works I make Michael take on a fictional persona called Michael Kava-Young. It’s a combination of his name and mine. I create a meta-fictional world using some of our personal histories. We are taking elements from the other shows we have done together (in other parts of the world) and appropriating them in this show.
And besides one of the video installations from this show, We are the World (a muted cover version of the iconic charity single produced in 1985 to raise funds for African famine relief, performed by the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions Choir) will be going to Berlin in May.
How is the Hong Kong edition of the show different from that in Venice?
I think the major difference between the two venues is that this is more of an exhibition space whereas in Venice it was more of a domestic setting. With a domestic setting, you take in the surroundings and use them to your advantage, whereas I needed to dramatize a space like this one. That’s why we are using it like a theatrical space inside which you have a fictional scenario. We have built into the space a structure resembling the foyer of a music theater as well as a recording studio (in keeping with) my approach to thwart rules and given environments.
The self-playing piano did not figure in the Venice show…
I thought that would add a little bit of a local context. That piece is related to a cheeringup song (launched at an RTHK concert in 1990 and featuring celebrity singers Sam Hui, George Lam, Anita Mui, Sally Yip, Roman Tam and Alan Tam among a dozen others). A lot of people were leaving Hong Kong at that time and the aim of the song was to make people stay back and have confidence in the future.
The music of that song will play on the piano, punctuated by two lines recited from the song. The original album cover shows images of the singers recording but the title is missing. Songs such as these are seen as formulaic both musically and in terms of the lyrics. It almost doesn’t matter what song it was. I feel like all of these uplifting songs we have produced in the last two or three decades in Hong Kong, that song was stereotypical.
What’s with the live performances?
Michael Schiefel did a super mashed-up cover of We are the World and some of his original songs. There are two more performances inspired by the idea of how Hong Kong people do cover versions to turn the original into something else. Keith Wong will do a whole bunch of them. I think he might be lip syncing for some of these.
This show seems to be a comment on living in a posttruth world. Are you worried that increasingly it’s getting difficult to tell the fake from the real?
When I heard the re-make of Do They Know It’s Christmas (Band Aid’s 1984 charity single) I thought it was very weird. I wanted to collaborate with the singer and then subsequently I found out the person didn’t exist. There’s a lot of talk recently about fake news but, for me, stumbling on something like that, I guess, was akin to being gifted a reason for imagining things, a reason to latch on to a fictional world. There are a lot of critical elements in the show but I don’t know if I’m trying to be critical of this border between fiction and reality. That line is very quickly shifting with the presence of virtual reality in our lives. I think I need to process technology rather than the borderline between fake and real.
Much of your work as indeed this show seems to be about the ambivalence of things, some sort of a resistance to the idea of the definitive…
I try not to rush it (arriving at an understanding of things). The story doesn’t have to end the moment I end the work. I don’t actually have to tie a knot or draw a conclusion. It’s taken me a long time but I have taught myself to be okay with people being confused. Because you don’t know Artist: Samson Young Curators: Kwok Ying, Chong Doryun Performances by Keith Wong (March 3), Kwan Sing Choir (March 28, 31), James Cuddeford and Hong Kong Sinfonietta (April 21) Dates: Through May 6 Venue: M+ Pavilion, West Kowloon Cultural District https://www.westkowloon.hk/ en/songsfordisasterrelief what people will see (in a piece of art). I found people see different things than you thought they would and they surprise you by seeing other things.
If you look at my earlier work, the vision was more singular, and my work was maybe more assured. Especially since 2014, my work has gotten denser and denser. A lot of artists work with the motto of less is more, for me more is always more, especially with thinking. If your mind is not constantly expanding to a point where you feel you’re reneging you’re probably not reading and seeing and thinking enough.
You did mention making “a soft landing”, a sort of drawing back before putting a full stop on your work in the catalogue published to mark the Hong Kong show.
Yes, keep it in suspension, keep it floating.
Selective erasing of an existing text or soundtrack and putting a different layer on it is something you do quite often.
That’s the way I work. It’s kind of super-layered. That’s the way my brain works as well. The way I put a show together is by laying my mind mapped out, just laying them all out there. I just try to make sure my audience engages sensually, visually, sonically. They might find it fun or they might see the light and sound show, they might be amused by the sculpture and that’s okay with me. I don’t have a singular message. If they start to make a connection, I’ll be happy.
Were the singers of the Hong Kong trade union choir aware that their singing would be muted in the video installation?
I was not expecting them to say yes. These people are not used to being in a contemporary art zone. (When they agreed) I thought let’s show them in a way that looks dignified and keep it at a level of mutual respect.
I did not keep any information from them. They were a bit uncertain from a technical standpoint, but were quite happy with the result. In fact, they are going to be singing again, at Hong Kong Art Basel.
If your work is essentially about trying to add clarity to your understanding of the material at hand, would you say you are getting any closer with each new project?
Sometimes I do, at other times I don’t. Sometimes I’ll process the information and make a bunch of works. For this exhibition I don’t think I’ve given it enough time yet. I think eventually I will, but there’s no rush.
The idea is not to reach a conclusion. With some of my previous works I feel, okay, I’ve done enough, I’ve done due diligence. Sometimes even when you’ve done due diligence, the world isn’t such that you would understand everything. And that’s okay. But most times, I do feel I’ve reached a conclusion. They might not be like a paradigm shift but they will affect who I choose to work with, how I think about an issue, how I collaborate with people. I think those are necessary.