Local experimental theatre and cultural groups are holding a series of activities “Give It A Shot”, combining exhibitions with performances at the At Light Art Gallery in Macau. The Creative team shared their thoughts on their productions in an exclusive interview with The Macau Post Daily at the gallery recently.
Co-hosted by Myland Culture, Macau Experimental Theatre, and Own Theatre, the “Give it a shot” experimental creation series is being held this month, with three new works staged by several artists from Macau and Hong Kong.
‘In a Moment’
The first piece, “In a Moment” by Zeng Wanqiu and Lucy G, combined a conceptual visual and tea space on the move, where tea drinkers gathered and absorbed what was around them in silence, with the aim of promoting the theme of treasuring this moment, also as a reflection of Macau’s society.
Lucy G, also known as Pal Lok, the creator of the activity and local art professional, who studies tea practices under Macau tea connoisseur Lo Hong Kong, said that the tea trade has been linked with the city since its colonial era, when Macau was a gateway to the world, but after the industrial revolution, as Macau was not a deep-water port its status as an East-West trading hub declined.
“The aroma of tea fades and people disperse,” Pal said, adding that this was similar to the situation back during the COVID-19 pandemic, where even the otherwise thriving casinos were temporarily shut down. “This has brought home to me that everything will eventually disappear,” said Pal.
The activities in “In a Moment” were surprisingly simple: drinking tea, sitting in silence and saying nothing. Zeng Wanqiu, also the creator of the activity, said that it was difficult for modern people to really slow down and enjoy the moment, and that the show’s activities were just a way to bring people back to something simple again, as Zeng said she believed that one’s awareness opens up most when one is not talking.
Zeng mentioned the concept of mind-flow, that is, when one enters a state of concentration, the flow of time becomes very slow. As Pal slowly brewed the tea for the audience to drink, audiences may have felt that her movements were slow at first, but after slowly moving around, the audience got in tune with the speed. “This is the concept of synchronicity, where people regulate each other’s vibrations, frequencies and so on,” said Zeng.
Pal said that the tea leaves used were from older bushes from Longjing village, and that the leaves were very fresh before the rainy season. The first batch of tea leaves from the Qingming Festival harvest were given to the audience to taste, and three different tea beverages were made based on the Longjing tea.
Zeng said that when one drinks tea, one’s senses will open up, “I believe that everything has a spirit and I think tea bushes are very spiritual and help to open up one’s senses.”
This show finished on May 14.
Pop-up Darkroom
The second piece is a photography collection called “Nocturnal”. Creator Rusty Fox said his work is a representation of plants that look very much like human limbs.
“Nocturnal” begins tomorrow.
Rusty was inspired by the fact that at the beginning of the pandemic, few people were out on the streets, and even the trees were not trimmed. He found it interesting to see how plants could take on exaggerated forms when no one was trimming them, which is so different from how they look every day.
“I think a tree should have some wrinkles and branches, like a human body.” But in order to fit in with the city, it usually has to be trimmed. “It is like a human being, living in the city, building his or her personality to fit in with society.” Rusty said, adding that he thinks that in the plants we can see the reflection of us living in the city.
In the exhibition, where the space will be lit with red light to stimulate the environment in which he worked in the darkroom, as his photographs are traditional film photography. “I want to let the audience see his photographs in a red-light environment.” Rusty said.
Because in film photography, the first time a photographer sees his work is usually under a red light, Rusty noted, adding: “Once we enter the darkroom, we have to work for a long time, maybe six hours or more.”
Over time, Rusty said has come to like the look of his work under a red light and in water, which is different to what you see when the lights are on, and he believes that is the way they should be, not when they are printed and placed flat in a frame.
From Virtual to Reality: Walker
Cynthia Sio, who is currently pursuing a doctoral programme in Modern Dance at Dankook University in South Korea, features her dance experiment.
The “experiment” will start tomorrow.
She said: “I often feel déjà vu (“already seen” in French) and wonder if whatever I did, thinking it was a plan that I had decided on, might have led to something that was already predetermined. She also said that when everyone only cares about the results and ignores the process, it is easy to fall into a confused state of mind.
On reflection, Sio said she believed that maybe what we do is not only to “have a result”, but every step of “doing” will inevitably draw ripples around us.
In the performance, applying this idea, in which there will be a lot of threads and nets forming the design of the space. The dancers will wrap threads around their bodies, which will be connected to a huge net on the ceiling, Sio said.
With the movement of the dance, the threads will change or create different connections, which is a metaphor for the butterfly effect*, to visualise and present this to the audience, and with each movement the dancers make the audience will be able to see the changes in space with their naked eye, and the dancers will be transformed into a living exhibit, Sio pointed out.
Anyone interested in the exhibition can visit their official website at https://www.bokfestival.com/38750241201996825615-give-it-a-shot.html for more information and ticket purchase. The series started on May 6 and will end on May 28.
*The butterfly effect is the idea that small things can have non-linear impacts on a complex system. The concept is imagined with a butterfly flapping its wings and causing a typhoon.
All file photos taken recently by the Bok Festival team.
