HOPE AND GLORY
A CONCEPTUAL CIRCUS CONCEIVED BY SIMON BIRCH
Through various media — film, sculpture, music, visual art, digital gaming and performance art, Hong-Kong-base artist Simon Birch’s large scale exhibition ‘Hope and Glory’ explores the ultimate contradiction in life and existence. From pain to salvation; dark to light; unrest to peace, the exhibition casts an immediate effect on the audience.
‘Our generation is obsessed with science fictions such as “Star Wars” and “Blade Runners”.’ Stated Birch. This explains the inclusion of projectors (five at the entrance and at the exit), large enough for the audience to sit inside. The result is not unlike the video game machines often seen on the street, and in this case, made for the audience to walk into Tron’s world. The dark entrance contrasts with the whiteness in the end, showing introductions and endings of different films in recurring loops. Birch observed the similarity of many introductions and endings in films over the years, with the senses heightened by the darkness, creating an almost circus-like effect. The journey experienced by the audience could be unsettling and otherworldly, forgetting that one is actually in a city.
The starting point of this exhibition is the venue — ArtistTree, ‘I am attracted to this space. I came to see the Vivienne Westwood exhibition years ago, and found it very spacious and unique, which is hard to find in Hong Kong. It is all the more interesting for it situates in the center of an industrial area’.
The Tsing Ma Bridge project brought Birch from Brighton (UK) to Hong Kong, soon it was his thirteenth year here. Birch has even mastered some Cantonese dialogues. Many criticize the lack of creative arena in Hong Kong, Birch considers ‘there is limitation in any place in the world’ and that he is ‘very grateful for Hong Kong’. He juggled a day job and art in the first few years. ‘It was only when my art took off that I could do it for full time. I gained this opportunity from this place. I am a down-to-earth person and I prefer to get on with things. Complaining does not mean much to me. I have been receiving tremendous support from friends every time I put on an exhibition, so I just feel extremely lucky! There is no place like Hong Kong’. (Diagnosed with cancer in 2008, Birch collected his medical reports and shown them in ‘Out of the Darkness’ exhibition.)
For the Hope and Glory exhibition, Birch gathers artists, designers, musicians, directors, photographers, actors and architects from Hong Kong and all over the world. Each of them was asked to interpret what ‘Hope and Glory’ means. The collaborators include photographer Wing Shya, British band UNKLE, filmmaker Eric Hu, designer Douglas Young, architect Paul Kember, actor Daniel Wu, and Beijing-based artist Cang Xin.
Text: BEBOP | Translation: dilettante | Photo: Fung Kwok Fai
Update: 16 Apr 2010
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