Hong-Kai Wang is a multidisciplinary artist who works across the fields of performance art, teaching, publishing, and creating exhibitions.
They talked about their process of creating and building a space to build an exhibition in, and the collaborative effort it was to build this space. They talked about the sound they played in this space, which is a combination of both a script of spoken word and field recordings that are heavily based on nature. They read us the script while showing us pictures of the exhibition, the exhibition space looks very industrial, very grey and spaced out, and the pictures were also shot in black and white which adds another layer of this industrial feeling. The script was very hypnotic using lots of repetition of words, “You sing… You sing.. You sing…” this was a really nice way to tell a story. It makes it feel almost dreamlike. This is from their work ‘The Flesh and the Phantom’.
It’s clear from their presentation that they take a lot of inspiration from books, especially books about music and sound and how they might be shown in other cultures. Hong-Kai Wang is from Taiwan and has studied and worked across the globe, so given that experience and what seems like an interest in people, cultures and countries it makes sense this is what some of their work focuses on.
It doesn’t seem Kai Wang associates themselves with sound art explicitly, they seem to work in many other fields which makes it impossible to put a point on what they specifically do. Which made the lecture all the more interesting. Kai – Wang work really relies on people listening and collaboration and open experimentation and rehearsals with people.
Kai-Wang has a beautiful collection of field recordings, they should us a piece called 20 recordings of winds, which was also put in an installation. The recordings were split up into acts recorded from different areas. Act 4 of these field recordings consists of waves, bells and walking on the beach. You can see this is another instance of Kai-Wang being influenced by nature. I really enjoyed how Kai-Wang uses field recordings, in particular wind. The wind recordings were raw but not in a harsh way, it felt very soft and relaxing. Their approach to wind reminds me of David Lynch in the way they use it to their advantage.
They talk about her recordings on Jeju island and how the wind really affected her, and how she can take the recordings, the history of the land, location and themselves and how they can translate it into sound.