On Screensaver by Luke CHING Program Designer John Socha-Leialoha invented screensaver in 1983. By repeating interminable rhythm, it cancels out every silence lingering on computer screen. Protagonist Truman Burbank in The Truman Show (released in 1998) watches the recurring movements of people and vehicles in his neighbourhood everyday. He thereon finally realizes the virtual world where he himself is thrown within. Similarly, Nicolaus Copernicus five hundred years ago shares a similar background. Without sophisticated astronomical equipment, Copernicus observes the repetitive order of the celestial bodies through incorporating mathematics with imagination. This builds the development leading to the explosion of the entire geocentric model of the universe. “Repetition” is the keyword threading up all the works in this exhibition. It is the subject-matter being interrogated and criticised in the works, also the artist’s tool to execute his critique, and at last it becomes a mandatory process for his very own refinement. To me, everyday life has already been progressed into an era of void where all forms of change occur within patterns of incessant repetitions. This helpless and inescapable framework haunts our contemporary life, like moth nibbling on snail – it doesn't pain; it benumbs. I am trying to, by different means, unveil and manifest the “screensaver” in our everyday life, brandishing these signs and letting them rub your eyes before your own reach. I look forward to learning my audience’s piercing through illusion through finding an aperture betwixt my works. Artwork descriptions The work Screensaver, sharing the selfsame exhibition title, is a set of seven closed-circuit televisions. The work displays single commercial logo through DVD players and each logo is revised by the transformation effect of built-in family editing software. After running the logos nonstop for over 3,000 hours, such blank operation eventually imprints remnant after-images on the TV screens. Another photography work that uses repetition to leave traits of images is Man without safety belt. Hong Kong Science Museum has collected an anonymous hero statue without a safety work belt to educate the public about the importance of using the belt in work at height. The man is hidden behind a display wall made of single-sided reflex glass. Whenever visitor passes by the sensor, this anonymous construction worker, without using the safety work belt, will show a death posture of falling from height through the glass amid the faint dimness of display light. Everyday he plays death over 1000 times, growing a cold indifference among audience through his repetitive death. With the use of long exposure by Holga, a camera of local invention, over a hundred deaths are now amalgamated into one photograph showing a clear visible visage of this man. Other’s death is a warning, but if you found dead bird in the street, dial 1823. The work 1823 complex pile is a mob-formed complex conglomerate of a flock of dead

fowls, blending half the HKSAR government into it. “Complex pile” is inspired by Paul McCarthy’s Complex Shit. Italo Calvino’s Mr. Palomar has spent considerable time meditating the chirps of bird and studying their linguistic system. He has an interesting hypothesis: birds express and communicate in moments of silence throughout their chirps, which means using language in terms of rests. The work Whisper is an unauthorized recording of bird’s chirp scattered in the background in Hong Kong Museum of History – the unbroken flow of chirps and twitters is in fact a kind of silence. Another sound work Personification: small speaker is a recent unauthorized recording of local councilors’ self-introduction broadcast through the speaker. By means of personification, speaker is now the carrier of an exchange – a non-human “human” pretending human speaking human language in the form of small speaker now emerges between streets and alleys. The line “The city is dying” has suddenly become a local slang in Hong Kong since its first appearance in the local TV drama Heaven and Earth. Monopolization of a city is the product of globalization. Postcard is a touristic product born of globalization at an early time and I realized that there is never a raining view on any Hong Kong postcard. My work Liquefied sunshine is the drawing of a raining view to each landscape shown on the postcards which eventually pushes the city view down to becoming the background the rain. The same city always produces the same crimes and accidents. Some years ago I worked in Manchester and drinking is prohibited in the city center. However, Manchester is a city blotched with broken glass from busted beer bottles. The work A bottle contains over hundred accidents is my collection of varied glass pieces from different corners of the city of Manchester assembled into one glass bottle. The shape of the bottle looks a bit tipsy. The same “accident” always produces the same news and advertisements. The work “Two-in-one: Apple Daily and Wenweipo” is a remaking of my previous work in 2007. I stitched the front pages of two newspapers of different political stances together which both used the explosion in London’s metro station as headline, and the same image from the Associated Press trimmed and placed in the same position. It turns out that the interweaved image is still visible, but the original text is now blurred. Another work Two-in-one: Ming Pao and Wenweipo is a replica of the same work – both newspapers publish the ad of the initial public offering of China CNR Corporation Limited’s company listing in the front page. Since newspapers have different styles of typesetting (vertical and landscape) for titles, the largest image of the train is different. The original text of the initial public offering is vivid after interweaving the two texts, but the image of the train is blurred. As one seventh of a journalist, I am particularly keen on newspapers’ typesetting. The work Transparent: Ming Pao and Ming Pao and Transparent: Takungpao and Takungpao used the repetitive framework of typesetting – the former on gambling, the latter on trial. Apart from repeating the framework of typesetting, the resemblance of political stance and argument between newspapers are rolling bigger and bigger these days. These are factors hastening the speed of newspaper reading. The work

Speed of reading newspaper portrays the speed of newspaper reading nowadays – a speed that even triggers emotions. Everything can be re-produced in a repetitive fashion no matter it is in the past or the future. The work 1989 and 2046 is a compound sculpture of my using carbon papers, amalgamating two daily calendars sharing a high affinity. To Hong Kong people, 1989 is an ancient year that is still lingering, whilst 2014 is still out of reach but it sounds like having past long ago. The difference between the two is 3 sets of 19 years. Generally speaking, the Gregorian calendar and Chinese lunar calendar meet every 19 years. Due to the new moon, the difference between the lunar calendars of 1989 and 2046 is just one day – perhaps this day is used for debugging life. The work Pixel is a work about the candlelight vigil at the Victoria Park. What is the resolution now in the square with the candlelight from over the past 25 years? To me, a drop of wax represents a candle, which becomes a cluster of pixel. Every year on 4th June, newspapers concern a lot the resolution of the image of the Victoria Park, nonetheless, behind each candlelight is a holder of flesh and blood. 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, 60 seconds a minute…If each unit were a person, everyday we lose 150 administrative approvals of one-way permit, 150 Hong Kong identity cards in Hong Kong’s time zone. The work 150 lost items is a response to this phenomenon - the quota for one-way permit has become a public loss of Hong Kong people. A number of works from this exhibition are inspired by bible stories or children tales. Under the influence of utilitarianism, I always read the stories in terms of fables. For instance, the bust Giant Goliath sprouts from my misunderstanding of Michelangelo’s David. I was thinking, before this gigantic stone, was Michelangelo thinking of Giant Goliath or David? At last he decided to portray David before the battle. And when the thought of defeating Goliath first leaped into David’s head, his head grew bigger than normal. When he beheaded Goliath, his himself grew into another giant. David in Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence, is 517cm tall. My work is reconstructed from David’s plaster bust in art school, measuring a little bigger than the actual size. Happy Prince is a work of my search for different public statues in the city of Manchester, waiting for the landing and departing of a city dove on its head. In reality, there is not much interaction between the Happy Prince and the birds. The bronze statue hasn’t given a penny to the dove and the only interaction is the doves’ shitting on their heads. The entitling of the work Zhou Chu is inspired by the story of Zhou Chu’s eradicating the three scourges. The structure of this story is developmental through a progressive repetition. Like many other children’s stories, one’s biggest enemy is always himself. The work is made by a pinhole camera, capturing the evil lurking inside the heads of the two soldiers. A similar discourse about “one’s enemy is always oneself” is also present in another two camouflage works. Camouflage: skin is a work with varied trimmed skin-coloured plasters obtained from pharmacy. We are used to covering up a wound by another wound until it’s badly mutilated. Another work Camouflage: uniform is the cutting and exchanging of different parts of the soldiers’ bodies in 5 different colours until arrived at one camouflage uniform for each soldier.

Camouflage is originally an invention serving military purpose, which has now become a fashion. The two video works are inspired by the scene that the Little Prince journeys to watch 44 sunsets. Everyday at 6 o’clock is the lowering of the national flag and regional flag of Hong Kong. Screensaver-sunsets in our country is a video work that, setting out from the Timar Site, I recorded the flag lowering ceremonies held at varied venues. Sauntering between differences, I watched six flag-lowering ceremonies in one day at different venues including High Court, Court of Final Appeal, Legislative Council Complex, the headquarters of the People’s Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison, Admiralty Centre and Hong Kong Police Headquarters. The Little Prince has also journeyed to watch 44 sunsets in a day. Screensaver-Sunsets at our home is a work inspired by the different times indicated on different clocks in IKEA. I walked between 9 time zones, stopping 6 p.m. for a total of 23 minutes. When the Little Prince is sad, he’ll budge to watch the sunset. I have tried a new material – graphite in two of my works in this exhibition. Black hair is a comb made of graphite which immortalizes youth and beauty. Another work, the smallest but the most important in the exhibition, Chinese colon and Chinese ellipsis, is eight nails made of graphite pencil leads in 2 sets. Chinese colon comes before you speak and Chinese ellipsis comes when you can’t speak clearly, or simply can’t speak anymore…