2014 Photo-Text
Lambda Print on aluminium Dibond in frame
155.5 cm x 38 cm x 3.6 cm (Two in a set)
In April 2014, I managed to get a part-time job. I was excited but nervous. It was to work as a performer in Museum Ludwig. I had to dress formal and look decent. So I bought a suit. On the opening day, the artist guided three of us, the ‘name announcers’, by himself. We had to stand at an exact position at the exhibition entrance. We had to ask every visitor for their names and then announce them really loudly into the exhibition space. The job was in shift-based. Each shift lasted for 4 hours. I worked 4 shifts a week.
At the beginning, it was not easy, especially when I wore a watch. I thought 30 minutes passed, but when I look at my 40-year-old mechanical watch, the minute hand just turned by 30 degrees. In order to kill boredom, I counted how many spotlights are there on the ceiling; how large the space is by counting the number of tiles. I tried different strategies of taking breaks, every 5 minutes for 30 minutes or every 10 minutes per hour, to make things feel faster. I watched the daylight change on the wall. I imagine how the weather changed outside, and how the tourists took photos of Dom.
Another colleague asked me another day, ‘How do you feel standing 4 hours straight?” ‘I don’t feel anything anymore. I just look at the white wall’, I smiled.
Exhibited in
《Alle berichten darüber: Dokumentarische Fotografie》
CASE – Project room of Photography, Academy of Media Arts Cologne, 2014
藝術館工作報告
2014- 照片-文字 鋁塑複合板上能達打印
155.5 厘米 x 38 厘米 x 3.6 厘米 (一組兩件)
Collaborative work with Wendy Ng
By I’m almost there. 幾乎做了 – An artist met a designer (or the other way round) for almost a year. Through their struggles and misunderstandings in communication, they felt the need to express their contradictory thoughts and awaited for the unexpected agreements.
2011 Spray paint, wall paint, wood, digital Video
Every day we write to each other, but what we know of us? I tell you ‘I’m thinking of you’ in all sort of ways, do you weigh the message same as I? The group I’m almost there. is taking this chance to bring awareness on the topic of mobile communication technology and its impact to us. Technology has the power to shape or construct our interpersonal relationships, yet the realisations on some of us are uncertain. How much effect do we actually pay to reach out for a person or to a society? It is believed that the quantity of communication offered by technology does not reflect its quality, while the perception and the necessity of communication technology is yet to define…
I’m almost there. would try to provide alternative perspectives on the consumption of intangible commodity.
Exhibited in 《Detour 2011: Useless》Former Married Police Quarter, Central, Hong Kong
Exhibition overview
Viewing Area – The best spot for the imaginary exhibition
Imaginary projection screen with specification
QR code for accessing an online image of projection screen
Imaginary working table with specification and QR code to access an online image of it
Guided description of the imaginary exhibition and user manual for accessing the online video works
2013- Video installation
HDV/ Color/ Sound
Complete statement and interview questions Silas Fong invites online stalker to suggest a target which he would approach and conduct video interview with. The stalkers set questions according to his knowledge to the stalkees. The stalkee was not told the identity of the stalker at any course. The stalkee then sits for an interview. During this interview the stalkee unavoidably created an image of the stalker and represented themselves with response to this imagination. The video was shown to the stalker after it is edited and commentary are done according to the discrepancy of the stalkee’s in fantasy and reality. In this work, audience is actually looking from the stalkers perspective while being aware of his/her mental activity according to the video.
—
Dear Stranger,
Are there people in your social networks that you don’t even know, that you have never seen, that you are not too familiar with. There maybe someone whom you are curious about, and have even watched for some time.
Have you ever thought of knowing them further without disclosing yourself?
If you have, we can help.
This is an invitation to enjoy our service.
We would help you to interview these strangers, and you would have the chance to comment on your strangers freely. We assure you that your identity would be kept confidential.
If you are intrigued, please kindly contact us by email via isp@silasfong.com.
Yours sincerely,
Silas Fong
Interview Service Provider
Exhibited in
《Sky ++》 Digital Community Art Exhibition, Goethe Institute, Hong Kong 2013
—-
Social network now allows us to get in and out of a stranger’s life without any difficulty. The greatest advantage of all is you can meet an enormous crowd of strangers in no time. It might be incorrect to stalk a stranger’s life without notice. However, a stranger has clearly granted such permission once their photos, information and thought are uploaded to the public domain. Don’t feel guilty about your curiosity. It should be shared and talked as hobbies for pleasure. After all, aren’t we all curious to know more about that familiar stranger?
The Service
Interview Service Provider (ISP) makes the world more open while being able to keep people disconnected. Enjoy the excitement and being safe at the same time.
We now offer stalkers the opportunities to know more about a stranger further through social networks.
We would help a stalker to interview a desired stranger (stalkee). ISP professional conduct guarantees that the stalker’s identity be kept confidential by both parties (ISP and the stalker).
When a stalker agrees to participate, ISP would approach this stalkee to sit for a video interview.
ISP would ask for the stalkee’s permission. When granted, ISP asks the stalker to provide 10 questions and 1 message for the stalkee. One single rule applies – any question or message that potentially suggests the stalkers’ identity would not be entertained.
Both ISP and the stalker shall never disclose the identity of the stalker by any means.
The video would be roughly edited and shown to the stalker. The stalker proceeds to comment on the stalkee and the video (commentary) as written text with ISP guidance.
The commentary would be made according to stalkee’s behaviour, and the discrepancy between the stalker’s fantasy and reality. Therefore the stalker is required to comment on the video in general but not just the stalkee.
After the final editing and adjustment by ISP, the interviews would be released in selected public occasions as a form of moving image. It would include the video interviews, the recorded speech of the stalkee and commentaries as subtitle by stalkers.
We would not disclose the stalkee’s response to the stalker’s message to any party.
It is ISP’s professional endeavor to satisfy any stalker’s curiosity and keep the stalkee’s curiosity ravenous.
Observation Society, Guangzhou
20 Oct 2012– 1 Dec 2012
I observed that green colour carefully – how should I describe it? That green was as mysterious as the heart of a gentle and calm devil, if one can know his heart?
I don’t mean to talk like this, as if without coherence, but there are always all these fascinating little tricks that seem to distract me from the necessary details.
How did those two frightened seals arouse my interest? Oh, I forgot to tell you, it was a Tuesday Afternoon and I was drinking warm beer. Later, I saw two animals in weird costumes outside the window and the sky was full of thick clouds – I must have seen them somewhere else.
I don’t know… I have this feeling of always hanging on, always wanting to know what will happen next.
I can only count on luck, waiting for the muse to come and nourish my curiosity. I sometimes bump into her, when she is washing dishes in kitchen; sometimes I find her behind her behind the door of the fridge looking for something. She always seems to be busy with whatever trivial thing comes her way.
What do you stare at, when you daydream? I usually stare at myself, always with the feeling that I’m also being stared at by someone else.
All these stories have passed and yet still they recur everyday, seemingly without end. I can no longer distinguish between the memories and the premonitions; it’s like I am watching several wonderful sitcoms unfolding at the same time.
2011 Video Installation 26-channel video installation on monitors
The exhibition is a video installation consisting of 26 videos, slide shows and text captions. The videos are captured by telecine super 8 film, webcam, cellphone, camera and digital video of different qualities.
With Memory Disorder, Fong investigates how the temporality of memory comes into play. In our consciousness, the images that one sees prompt an associate with images drawn from our memory. This often triggers flashbacks and even imagined events. Our minds are often a sequence of randomly connected scenes. Is there an ordering for memories? Are they organized chronologically or dependent on one’s state of mind, or an inseparable mixture of both?
By using his biography as a specimen, Fong choreographs an experience of immerging in memories and imagination by letting moving images appear and disappear. The scenes are drawn from personal encounters with conflict, the youthful urge to search for something not known, people to empathize with and places imbued with affection. According to Fong, the work is an on-going fragmented narrative that raises the question: “do we want to forget, or not?”
-Aenon Loo
Exhibited in 《Memory Disorder》 Gallery Exit, Hong Kong
2011 Web Page Approx. 10 mins depends on internet connection speed
Is there an order for memories? I wonder how they are arranged so that the scenes in our mind somehow appear randomly. Are they organised according to chronological order or according to the relevance of one’s state of mind? Cinema to me is an art of memories. Cinema works with how the images that one sees are associated with the lost and remembered images and imagined ones. It manipulates the perspective and the perception of time by the audience. In this work I try to create an experience of memories and imagination by letting moving images appear and disappear. Footage ranges from telecined super 8 film, web cam, photographs and digital video cameras at different qualities. It is displayed in a web browsing environment in multi-channels. With different internet connection speed, system of the computer and the dimension of monitor, the work can be viewed differently in the sequential arrangement and content narrated.
Exhibited in 《The Order of Things》a net video art exhibition Netfilmmakers, Copenhagen, Denmark Videotage, Hong Kong
