Rehearsal of the Futures: Police Training Exercises, 2018

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, 2018
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

In Rehearsal of the Futures: Police Training Exercises (2018), Isaac Chong Wai choreographs the movement of uniformed riot police in a tortuously slow motion, imbuing their originally violent intentions with a paradoxical gentleness. Slowing down the aggressive attack and the collision of bodies, the posturing and movements struggle in between touching and hitting. These decelerated actions visualise the violence inflicted upon individuals by the collective power structures.

Isaac Chong Wai’s research into police training exercises around the world also questions the development of these actions and their intended use: are they meant as a first line of defence, or a last resort? Chong and a group of performers enact choreographed sets of movements based on past altercations at protest sites and training exercises taught at police academies, but at greatly reduced speeds. Slowing down the aggressive attack and the collision of bodies, the posturing and movements struggle in between touching and hitting. This work was commissioned by M+ as part of “M+ Live Art: Audience as Performer” (2018). Chong takes the history of protests—through its repetitive expressions and actions—as a point of departure. The work is a continuation of Chong’s investigation into imagined futures and how, through certain movements and postures, past ideology can be interpreted upon by future generations.