Abstract
Join Gourd Canteen for Revolving, a screening of Hong Kong-based artist Lo Lai Lai Natalie’s video works on 25 March 2023 at Goldsmiths CCA. The screening will feature video essays from 2017 to 2023, including Lo’s recent work, A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields 飛行備忘 (2022-2023).
The screening will be followed by a share-and-discuss session with the artist joining online to share how farming and artistic creation are interwoven in her practice. The discussion will also explore her research on diasporic experience and non-human species.
Showing:
A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields 飛行備忘
2022-2023
28 min 5 sec
(Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/799611613/a6e12d5489 )
This is the follow-up episode of Lo’s 2020 film The Days Before The Silent Spring. In the wake of the recent growth and movement of the Hong Kong diaspora, Lo interviewed farmers who left Hong Kong and those who chose to stay. The film speaks of one’s urge to self-actualise in a turbulent world.
The screening will show a full-length combined-channel version of the film and the documentation of its installation.
An Excerpt of The Day Before The Silent Spring 寂靜春天來臨前
2020
5 min
The video installation The Day Before The Silent Spring weaves together a spectrum of footage shot from different points of view in a homage to the decade-long journey of the farming collective Sangwoodgoon, to which she belongs, while reflecting on the multitude of worlds tied together and a myriad of life-forms germinated by the practice of farming. It contains the artist’s personal conversations with Sangwoodgoon’s members.
The work is currently on show in State-less 無國界’, a group exhibition presented by Kakilang at Two Temple Place, London (until 9th April 2023). The exhibition shows works by 10 international East and Southeast Asian artists. It asks what it means to have a complex identity, influenced by one’s background as well as ountry of origin, how East and Southeast Asian heritage can be engaged politically, and how it can challenge the wider public.
The screening will show a single-channel excerpt of this work.
Deep Flight 飛天潛水艇
2017
9 min 20 sec
(Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/763706788/9794472741)
She became a Deep Flight in the natural environment, never saying no, delivering diverse kinds of matter and happening, including desires.
Rice Flowers 米花
2018
3 min 20 sec
A short film on rice and the futileness of rice planting/farming
About the artist
Lo Lai Lai Natalie is based and working in Hong Kong. She received her Bachelor of Art (Fine Arts) and Master of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a former travel journalist, she finds her interests in food, farming, fermentation, surveillance, and meditation. She has a farming practice, using photography, video and installation as a means to interact with nature. Her artworks are collected by the Sigg Collection and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Lai Lai has presented her solo exhibition ‘A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields’ (Goethe Institut Hongkong, 2023), ‘You’d Better Turn Down the Volume’ (PTT Space Taipei, 2021-2022), ‘The Days Before The Silent Spring’ (WMA Space Hong Kong, 2020-2021), ‘Give no words but Mum’ (Tomorrow Maybe, 2020), ‘Down into the Abyss’ (bonacon Gallery, 2018), etc.
She received the WMA Commission Grant on the theme of Opportunity in Hong Kong and she was the Gold Award recipient of the Media Arts Category of the 26rd ifva Award, Hong Kong in 2021. Her artworks have been shown in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, London, Naha, Dresden, Basel, Johannesburg, Yogyakarta, Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai.
website: https://www.lolailai.com/
About Gourd Canteen
https://www.notion.so/About-Gourd-Canteen-70e33b551d664999a88d8b5870e94ebf
cover image: still from A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields (2022-2023), courtesy of the artist
The screening will be followed by a share-and-discuss session with the artist joining online to share how farming and artistic creation are interwoven in her practice. The discussion will also explore her research on diasporic experience and non-human species.
Showing:
A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields 飛行備忘
2022-2023
28 min 5 sec
(Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/799611613/a6e12d5489 )
This is the follow-up episode of Lo’s 2020 film The Days Before The Silent Spring. In the wake of the recent growth and movement of the Hong Kong diaspora, Lo interviewed farmers who left Hong Kong and those who chose to stay. The film speaks of one’s urge to self-actualise in a turbulent world.
The screening will show a full-length combined-channel version of the film and the documentation of its installation.
An Excerpt of The Day Before The Silent Spring 寂靜春天來臨前
2020
5 min
The video installation The Day Before The Silent Spring weaves together a spectrum of footage shot from different points of view in a homage to the decade-long journey of the farming collective Sangwoodgoon, to which she belongs, while reflecting on the multitude of worlds tied together and a myriad of life-forms germinated by the practice of farming. It contains the artist’s personal conversations with Sangwoodgoon’s members.
The work is currently on show in State-less 無國界’, a group exhibition presented by Kakilang at Two Temple Place, London (until 9th April 2023). The exhibition shows works by 10 international East and Southeast Asian artists. It asks what it means to have a complex identity, influenced by one’s background as well as ountry of origin, how East and Southeast Asian heritage can be engaged politically, and how it can challenge the wider public.
The screening will show a single-channel excerpt of this work.
Deep Flight 飛天潛水艇
2017
9 min 20 sec
(Excerpt: https://vimeo.com/763706788/9794472741)
She became a Deep Flight in the natural environment, never saying no, delivering diverse kinds of matter and happening, including desires.
Rice Flowers 米花
2018
3 min 20 sec
A short film on rice and the futileness of rice planting/farming
About the artist
Lo Lai Lai Natalie is based and working in Hong Kong. She received her Bachelor of Art (Fine Arts) and Master of Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. As a former travel journalist, she finds her interests in food, farming, fermentation, surveillance, and meditation. She has a farming practice, using photography, video and installation as a means to interact with nature. Her artworks are collected by the Sigg Collection and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
Lai Lai has presented her solo exhibition ‘A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields’ (Goethe Institut Hongkong, 2023), ‘You’d Better Turn Down the Volume’ (PTT Space Taipei, 2021-2022), ‘The Days Before The Silent Spring’ (WMA Space Hong Kong, 2020-2021), ‘Give no words but Mum’ (Tomorrow Maybe, 2020), ‘Down into the Abyss’ (bonacon Gallery, 2018), etc.
She received the WMA Commission Grant on the theme of Opportunity in Hong Kong and she was the Gold Award recipient of the Media Arts Category of the 26rd ifva Award, Hong Kong in 2021. Her artworks have been shown in San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, London, Naha, Dresden, Basel, Johannesburg, Yogyakarta, Taiwan, Beijing and Shanghai.
website: https://www.lolailai.com/
About Gourd Canteen
https://www.notion.so/About-Gourd-Canteen-70e33b551d664999a88d8b5870e94ebf
cover image: still from A Messenger - Passerby in Our Battlefields (2022-2023), courtesy of the artist
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Media of output | Onsite |
| Publication status | Published - 25 Mar 2023 |
| Event | Revolving: Screening of video works by Lo Lai Lai Natalie - Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom Duration: 25 Mar 2023 → 25 Mar 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Research Unit(s) information for this publication is provided by the author(s) concerned.Research Keywords
- Film screening
- Ecological art
- visual art
- Essay film
- Farming and social engagement