Homesick - Exhibition and Ongoing Experimentation by Enoch Cheng

Exhibition opening with lecture performance in the presence of Enoch Cheng
16.8.2018 (Thu), 7:00pm, Goethe-Gallery

Following up on his two previous film works Cortazar Aquarium and Same Boat (which were recently shown at Goethe-Institut Hongkong), Enoch Cheng continues to address his recurring themes of migration and extinction. Shifting through various locations, such as botanical gardens, museums, a butcher's, a zoo, and a virtual space, this multi-channel audio-visual installation explores the notions of home and where one resides. Instead of a linear narrative, this film rides on rhythm and sound to present a journey in which its destination is not guaranteed, similar to how one's identity is a process of evolution.
                                                                                                                              
On the opening night, the artist will present a lecture performance entitled Rock the Boat. In this lecture performance, Cheng narrates the story of a curious journey. As if having boarded a boat setting sail for an unknown land, he focuses on the events that might take place on that boat. This talk shifts among the languages of fiction, museology, natural history, mythology, and Cantonese opera movement, as well as his personal and family history, to formulate a story that mutates across time and space. This is a story about how one's identity articulates a new name.

This programme is part of ArtLab in the summer at Goethe-Institut Hongkong, an experimental platform in which Enoch Cheng will work with artists from different disciplines in Hong Kong. Instead of concentrating on the final outcome, this platform encourages participating artists to develop new modes of inquiry, to enable ideas through a collaborative process. Confirmed participating artists include Chin King (Music), Sim-fong Lai (Dramaturgy), Eliza Li Pui Yan (Cantonese Opera), and Noise Miner (Sound).

In addition to the exhibition by Enoch Cheng, towards the end of September there will be presentations by the artists from their collaborations within the framework of ArtLab.
 

© Enoch Cheng

Enoch Cheng is an independent artist. His practice spans moving image, installation, curating, dance, events, theatre, writing, and performance. Concerned with the everyday subtleties in contemporary urban lives, his works explore recurrent themes of place, travel, fiction, memory, time, and destination.  He received his MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, London, and BA in English Literature and Art History at the University of Hong Kong; he has also lectured at Hong Kong Art School. 
 
Enoch Cheng is the recipient of Award for Young Artist at Hong Kong Arts Development Awards.  He is currently researching on various ideas of extinction and migration, exploring themes about mythologies, nature, Asia and Africa. He was an artist fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany (2015–2018), and artist-in-residence at POGON – Zagreb Centre for Independent Culture and Youth (2018).