Angela Su: Arise, Hong Kong in Venice

Arise, Angela Su’s presentation for the Venice Biennale 2022, conveys a speculative narrative through interlocking fictional perspectives. The act of levitation serves as an organising metaphor that reappears throughout Su’s drawings, moving image works, embroideries, and installations. The artist assumes the guise of a fictional alter ego to explore myriad cultural and political implications of rising in the air. Levitation speaks to both light and weighty matters; it moves between visceral bodily experiences and dream-like states of rapture that leave the body behind.

The centrepiece of the exhibition is a new video work, The Magnificent Levitation Act of Lauren O. This pseudo-documentary tells the story of Lauren O, a fictional character who believes she can levitate, and her involvement with Laden Raven, an activist group catalysed by the US anti-war movement of the 1960s. Su’s video comprises found footage and clips of a new performance by the artist. Weaving together fact and fiction, the work suggests an alternative space for action and disruption. Traces of Lauren O and Laden Raven are embedded in the constellation of artwork in the exhibition. The works on view invite the audience to take a journey in this fictional world built by Su.

The world Su creates in Arise is an assemblage of various contemporary expressions of how an individual can confront a changed and changing world. Fiction allows us to create this hybrid world, a space where we can explore ideas that cannot be confronted directly. As was the case with the four previous collaborations between M+ and HKADC for Venice Biennale 2022, Hong Kong audiences will have the opportunity to see Angela Su’s work following the close of the Venice presentation. A return exhibition will be on view in 2023 at M+ in Hong Kong.

Angela Su’s works investigate the perception and imagery of the body, through metamorphosis, hybridity and transformation. Her research-based projects materialise in drawing, video, hair embroidery, performative and installation works, which explore the interrelations between our state of being and the advancement of technology. Central to these projects are video essays and texts that weave together fiction and facts, reality and fantasy. With focus on the history of medical science, her works question the dominant biomedical discourse, and contemplate the impact of technology on the past, present and future.

Freya Chou is a curator and editor based in Hong Kong. She was in the curatorial team for the sixth and seventh Taipei Biennial (2008, 2010) and was Co-Curator of the 10th Shanghai Biennial (2014). From 2015 to 2019, she worked at Para Site in Hong Kong as the institution’s first Education and Public Programs Curator. During those four years she also curated exhibitions: Ellen Pau: What About Home Affairs? - A Retrospective (2018); Chris Evans, Pak Sheung Chuen: Two Exhibitions (2017); and Afterwork (co-curator, 2016). Chou has recently worked independently on research projects with several organizations, including Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong. She has edited and contributed writing to many artists’ books, magazines, and exhibition catalogues. Chou is a member of the 58th Carnegie International’s Curatorial Council.

Before joining Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, as Senior Curator, Ying Kwok worked as an independent curator between 2013 to 2021 and served as Guest Curator at M+ for Samson Young: Songs for Disaster Relief as Hong Kong presentation at the 57th Venice Biennale. Kwok was the curator at the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art in Manchester, United Kingdom, between 2006 and 2012. In 2014, Kwok was awarded the Asia Cultural Council Fellowship. She was also an international fellow in the Clore Leadership Programme 2018/19.

Co-commissioners
Bernard Charnwut Chan, Chairman of the Board of M Plus Museum Limited
Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, Chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Guest Curator: Freya Chou
Consulting Curator: Ying Kwok
Assistant Manager: Jenny Tam