Memento by Ed Pien is a contemplation of the human condition: how we act and react to the inescapable forces that shape us. Suki Chan's practice combines light, moving image, electronics and sound within mixed-media installations to explore our physical and psychological experience of space.
Ed Pien. Memento
23 July - 4 September 2010
Memento is a contemplation of the human condition: how we act and react to the inescapable forces that shape us. Memento has been developed out of research into the plight of illegal immigrants, such as the Chinese who remain hidden in society (think of the tragedy that beset the cockle pickers), the faujis, from India as well as the “burnt ones” - young Moroccans, who often take great risks in the hope of living a more significant and meaningful life.
Some, attempting to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, perish along the way.
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Suki Chan
Sleep Walk, Sleep Talk
Suki Chan's practice combines light, moving image, electronics and sound within mixed-media installations to explore our physical and psychological experience of space.
A London of fast-blinking lights and speeding commuters, where cars and trains leave luminous comet-trails marking their passage through the night, and where individuals reflect on freedom in the urban metropolis, or seek escape from the repetitive habits and conditions it enforces. Inspired by ideas of freedom of expression in contemporary society, Suki Chan’s video installation is an impressionistic study of London’s diverse population. Chan contrasts the movements of people on their way to and from work with their individual efforts to enjoy free time – exploring how we create our own personal and psychological space outside the architectural restrictions and behavioural patterns imposed by life in the city.
Chan’s work weaves together a series of evocative video portraits highlighting people’s different responses to the hubbub of London life. Groups of skaters, unimpeded by traffic, move freely through the twilight city, tracing their own intuitive map of the metropolis. Nigerian security guards gatekeeping a deserted high-rise office block compare the 'freedom’ of London with the rhythms and aspirations of their former life, while city commuters embody the mundane, monotonous regularity of our everyday urban existence. First shown, to great atmospheric effect, in an outdoor, rooftop setting at A Foundation in London, 'Sleep Walk, Sleep Talk’ was subsequently presented in a more conventional twin-screen configuration.
Commissioned and presented in collaboration with A Foundation and 198 Contemporary Arts & Learning and funded, as part of 'Free to Air’, by London Councils.
Press contact
Raam Tarat, Marketing & Communications Manager, on 0115 924 8630 or raam@nae.org.uk
Opening Friday 23 July 2010
New Art Exchange
39-41 Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham
Opening: Monday to Friday 10am - 7pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm, Sunday Closed
Closed on Bank Holidays, except Good Friday (10am - 4pm)
Free admission