Rehearsal of the Futures
The artist imagines an alternate future where movements slow down the tide of violence in public spheres.
By remodeling the mechanism of political campaigns and questioning the perception of the leaders’ bodies, the work rewrites the body by means of obscurity, reciprocity, and transnationality: Faces portraying power are blurred; speeches of leaders are uttered collectively. In this context, individualism is re-discussed in a collective form: How does the homogenization of identity (a collective body) become a new shelter—a collective “leader”?
Rehearsal of the Futures: Leaderless, 2020
Isaac Chong Wai
Commissioned by Kulturakademie Tarabya and Zilberman
Camera Operator: Kayhan Kaygusuz
Production Coordinator: Gizem Demircelik
Performers: Meltem Gürlevik, Su Güzey, İsmet Köroğlu, Can Özmen and Verda Zincirkıra
Isaac Chong Wai studies the exercises conducted in police academies around the world. He envisions artistic training methods for police and choreographs the movements of uniformed officers in tortuously slow motion, imbuing the violence with a paradoxical gentleness. By slowing down the collision of bodies, the posturing and movements oscillate between touching and hitting.
Rehearsal of the Futures: Police Training Exercises, 2018
Isaac Chong Wai
Performance and Video
Commissioned by M+ Museum for M+ Live Art: Audience as Performer
Documented at Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
Photo/Video by CPAK Studio
Sound: Nobutaka Shomura
Performers: Marah Arcilla, Sylvie Cox, Calvin Tak Chi Ngan, Ong Tze Shen, Sarah Xiao Cheng Yong
By researching the repetitive body postures, gestures and movements of protestors throughout the history of protests globally, the performance rehearses and edits how we normally perceive the body. Carrying each other in turn until the holder is shaking and exhausted; transforming a fight in slow motion, the subtle movements compel us to read closely the vocabulary of protests.
Rehearsal of the Futures: Is the World Your Friend? 2018
Isaac Chong Wai
Performance, Set of 13 Drawing (30x40 each with frame)
Exhibited at ACUD Galerie curated by Pauline Doutreluingne and Petra Suzie Poelzl
Performers: Katherine Leung, Manuel Lindner, Imola Nagy, Nobutaka Shomura.
Photo: Tobias Koenig