Gameboy Haiku I (2008/09). Nintendo Gameboy with backlight, specially programmed game cards. 740x300 mm. EXHIBITION HISTORY 2009 Re-animating, City Fringe Festival, JCCAC, Hong Kong. 2008 Sonic Fragments, Princeton University. 2008 Benten 17 Gallery, Hong Kong. ABOUT THE WORK 1989-nintendo-made hand-held gaming devices were exploited to poetic ends: each of these Gameboys were programmed to display an animation of a single Chinese character. When strung together, these Gameboys will read as a Haiku poem that comments on certain aspect of Sino-Japanese relationship to-date. In the work, I used a special edition of the console that was only released in Japan, which features a back-lit screen that glows in the dark. 16 of these special edition Gameboys were lined up to display a collage of Chinese characters that fades in and out of sight, eventually reading: 用日貨批評日本的 一種精神分裂 (Trans.: the schrizophenia that is typified by using Japanese products to criticize Japan.)
Installation view in the dark:
	Ride Me Like a Cowboy (The New China - Chinese New Year Edition) III (2008). Coin-operated amusement ride, DVD player, 5" video monitor, tape recording. 84x64x20 inches. EXHIBITION HISTORY 2008 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Victoria Prison, Hong Kong. 2008 Parasite, Hong Kong. ABOUT THE WORK A video screen is installed on the back of a coin-operated amusement ride. Video and sound play upon inserting a one dollar coin into the installation. The video was shot inside of Victoria Prison - where the colonial British government used to keep illegal immigrants from mainland China. WATCH THE EMBEDDED VIDEO
	Ride Me Like a Cowboy (The New China) I, II (2007). Coin-operated amusement ride, DVD player, 5" video monitor, tape recording. 84x64x20 inches. EXHIBITION HISTORY 2008 The Work Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. 2008 Emerging Artist of the Chinese Diaspora, Deutschebank Head Quarters, New York. [essay by Eric Shiner] 2007 Bloomberg Emerging Artist Exhibition, Sino Hong Kong Art Gallery, Hong Kong. ABOUT THE WORK A video screen is installed on the back of a coin-operated amusement ride. Video and sound play upon inserting a one dollar coin into the installation. Joyous tune of Chinese nursery rhyme is juxaposed with clips of student drinking, gathering, partying, and generally just having a good time in various parts of Beijing immediately preceeding the Tiananmen Square incidence.
	Build / De-construction Socialism With Chinese Characteristics (2007). 2 Channel video installation, 10 minutes. EXHIBITION HISTORY [video installation version] 2009 Re-animating, City Fringe Festival, JCCAC, Hong Kong. 2007 Bloomberg Emerging Artist Exhibition, Sino Hong Kong Art Gallery, Hong Kong. [performance version] 2008 Taplin Auditorium, Princeton University. 2007 Unpleasant Performance, Kapok, Hong Kong. ABOUT THE WORK Po' is the Chinese character in the British children's TV program Teletubbies. In Cantonese, the character Po' means “ordinary,” “common,” or “of the people's” – Po' Suen, for instance, is “direct election.” The Reverend Jerry Falwell, a former spokesman for America's Moral Majority, says that Teletubbies does not provide a good role model for children because Tinky Winky (the purple Teletubby) is gay. The creator of the show, in response, maintained that Tinky Winky “is simply a sweet, technological baby with a magic bag.” The English word “gay” is phonetically very similar to the Cantonese character that signifies the concept of something basic, or of fundamental importance. For instance, Gay Booan Yan Kuen literally translates into “basic human right” in English. meanwhile.... Deng Xiaoping's 1979 speech “Build Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” gave justification to the establishment of the so-called “Special Economic Zones” (SEZ) in China. SEZs, including Shenzhen and many other southern capitalist economic powerhouses, collectively signal the arrival of a new era of ideological ambivalence. As Deng put it - “it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.” The soundtrack of the video renders the text of Deng's famous speech with Text-to-Speech technology. As the piece progresses, the left and right channels become out-of-sync and disintegrated, and the voice shifts from male to female vocal range. The video lasts for 14 minutes and 10 seconds, which is exactly how long it took me from the moment I step out of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen train, to the moment I crossed the Lo-wu bridge into official mainland Chinese territory. WATCH VIDEO TRAILER
	That Gong Tormented-Sea II (2007). Sound installation and site specific performance. Installation: acrylic, light blubs, pabble, purified water, sand, speaker cone, 3-channel sound system. Dimensions variable. EXHIBITION HISTORY 2008 Shenzhen Fine Arts Institute, Shenzhen. 2007 October Contemporary, Osage Gallery, Hong Kong. 2007 Osage Gallery, Old School, Singapore. ABOUT THE WORK In this work, seven speaker cones are submerged into purified water (purified water does not conduct electricity, thus avoiding short-circuits). These speakers are split into 3 channels, each producing low-frequency gong-like sounds at different times. These sounds shake the water surface, projecting an ocean of ripples on the ceiling of the installation space. Watch the dancers interact with the sound installation in the video below:
	The Age of Innocence (Homage to Joshua Reynolds) (2007). Sound Installation. Audio cable, cotton thread, chair, desk, dried flower, exercise book, light blub, paper, piezo plate, 4-channel sound system. Dimensions variable. EXHIBITION HISTORY 2007 Bloomberg Emerging Artist Exhibition, Sino Hong Kong Art Gallery, Hong Kong. ABOUT THE WORK "I dreamed of a classroom where dialectics are flown like kites." Piezo plates turns hundred of pieces of paper from school exercise book into mini-speakers. A four channel sound system streams quiet mumbling of random primary school textbook excerpts through these paper speakers.