Spoiled Systems, Slow Sabotage
Exhibition |Exhibition of SALOON Network
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Library, Goethe-Institut Hongkong, Hong Kong
SALOON Network presents Spoiled Systems, Slow Sabotage, a collection of eight video works that explores fermentation not only as a biological process, but a radical logic of transformation. Queering ecologies and infrastructures, spanning personal, biological, social and digital realms, these works unsettle fixed categories of identity and function.
Through time, video art has challenged traditional notions of media and gradually evolved into diverse forms and experiments. The exhibition aims to explore this generative unruliness through diverse artistic lenses: digital materiality mirrors biological decay; algorithms act as microbes; and glitches become fertile soil where meanings compost and recompose, rejecting the sterile perfection of the digital form. Here, queerness operates as a method—a way of rerouting how worlds are built through cross-species alliances.
Jessie Tam’s Be Friend OK? explores migration and relocation through the ecological nexus of geese and diet. Elisa Duca’s Dreams of Vending Machines liberates objects from functional labour and queering urban infrastructure. Katrin Hornek’s Plant Plant reconstructs the history of nitrogen factories, revealing an ecosystem where industrial exhaustion gives way to a new microbial order. Lee Sum Yi’s Real records the ‘constant’, reinterpreting personal narratives against normative laws. Lauren Moffatt’s Compost subjects botanical imagery to digital fermentation, creating forms between the organic and artificial. Bianca Kennedy’s Let Them Eat Cake satirises the cost of maintaining ‘sweetness’, while Korallia Stergides’s Bud cultivates an eco-feminist mythology of collective self-care. Finally, Navina Neverla’s The Four Elements draws on Shamanic and Buddhist wisdom to seek transcendental connectivity.
Ultimately, these practices reimagine decay as a vital stage of renewal. Whether in a jar, a body, or a server farm, fermentation is the process by which assigned order seethes and dreams itself otherwise. Through careful monitoring and ‘slow sabotage’, these works act as fables of self-awareness, transforming the compost of the old world into an unpredictable and entangled future. Here, the breakdown of the system becomes the breakthrough of the sympoietic experiment.
This exhibition is the result of an international open call within the SALOON Network and is curated by Kelly Chan, Jing Chin-yin Chong and Alberta Leung of the SALOON Hong Kong board, together with Elisa Duca of the SALOON Berlin board, and in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Hong Kong.
About SALOON Network
Founded in 2012, the SALOON Network is an international community of women-identifying and non-binary art professionals, now active across 16 cities worldwide. It fosters exchange, collaboration and visibility for its members, who include curators, artists, journalists, and gallerists. Our activities range from private bi-/monthly meetings to public events such as studio visits, portfolio reviews, exhibitions and panel discussions. We actively collaborate with other communities to promote inclusion, exchange and trust among diverse networks. Committed to intersectional, decolonial and anti-racist feminist work, we aim to create more visibility and equal opportunities, especially encouraging participation from BIPOC, cis and trans women, and non-binary individuals. Our membership is open to all who support our mission to center the experiences of women and are dedicated to dismantling systemic boundaries within the art world.
https://www.saloon-network.org/
About SALOON Hong Kong
The SALOON Hong Kong is a pioneering initiative founded by Alberta Leung, Jing Chin-yin Chong and Kelly Chan, marking Hong Kong the first city in Asia to join the global SALOON Network. This vibrant hub is dedicated to fostering a professional yet intimate environment where arts and cultural practitioners can exchange ideas, develop dialogues and expand diverse perspectives. As a dynamic metropolis with a diverse population and culture, Hong Kong boasts a rich tapestry of traditions, creativity and innovation. Its thriving arts scene provides a fertile ground for collaboration and inspiration. Engagement in the global network facilitates the exchange of forward-looking practices, encouraging innovation and excellence in the local arts community. SALOON Hong Kong serves as a vital space for women-identifying art professionals to connect, share experiments and offer support to one another in their artistic endeavours.
https://www.instagram.com/saloon.hongkong/
Media Inquiry
SALOON Hong Kong
Email: hongkong@saloon-network.org
IG: @saloon.hongkong
Through time, video art has challenged traditional notions of media and gradually evolved into diverse forms and experiments. The exhibition aims to explore this generative unruliness through diverse artistic lenses: digital materiality mirrors biological decay; algorithms act as microbes; and glitches become fertile soil where meanings compost and recompose, rejecting the sterile perfection of the digital form. Here, queerness operates as a method—a way of rerouting how worlds are built through cross-species alliances.
Jessie Tam’s Be Friend OK? explores migration and relocation through the ecological nexus of geese and diet. Elisa Duca’s Dreams of Vending Machines liberates objects from functional labour and queering urban infrastructure. Katrin Hornek’s Plant Plant reconstructs the history of nitrogen factories, revealing an ecosystem where industrial exhaustion gives way to a new microbial order. Lee Sum Yi’s Real records the ‘constant’, reinterpreting personal narratives against normative laws. Lauren Moffatt’s Compost subjects botanical imagery to digital fermentation, creating forms between the organic and artificial. Bianca Kennedy’s Let Them Eat Cake satirises the cost of maintaining ‘sweetness’, while Korallia Stergides’s Bud cultivates an eco-feminist mythology of collective self-care. Finally, Navina Neverla’s The Four Elements draws on Shamanic and Buddhist wisdom to seek transcendental connectivity.
Ultimately, these practices reimagine decay as a vital stage of renewal. Whether in a jar, a body, or a server farm, fermentation is the process by which assigned order seethes and dreams itself otherwise. Through careful monitoring and ‘slow sabotage’, these works act as fables of self-awareness, transforming the compost of the old world into an unpredictable and entangled future. Here, the breakdown of the system becomes the breakthrough of the sympoietic experiment.
This exhibition is the result of an international open call within the SALOON Network and is curated by Kelly Chan, Jing Chin-yin Chong and Alberta Leung of the SALOON Hong Kong board, together with Elisa Duca of the SALOON Berlin board, and in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Hong Kong.
About SALOON Network
Founded in 2012, the SALOON Network is an international community of women-identifying and non-binary art professionals, now active across 16 cities worldwide. It fosters exchange, collaboration and visibility for its members, who include curators, artists, journalists, and gallerists. Our activities range from private bi-/monthly meetings to public events such as studio visits, portfolio reviews, exhibitions and panel discussions. We actively collaborate with other communities to promote inclusion, exchange and trust among diverse networks. Committed to intersectional, decolonial and anti-racist feminist work, we aim to create more visibility and equal opportunities, especially encouraging participation from BIPOC, cis and trans women, and non-binary individuals. Our membership is open to all who support our mission to center the experiences of women and are dedicated to dismantling systemic boundaries within the art world.
https://www.saloon-network.org/
About SALOON Hong Kong
The SALOON Hong Kong is a pioneering initiative founded by Alberta Leung, Jing Chin-yin Chong and Kelly Chan, marking Hong Kong the first city in Asia to join the global SALOON Network. This vibrant hub is dedicated to fostering a professional yet intimate environment where arts and cultural practitioners can exchange ideas, develop dialogues and expand diverse perspectives. As a dynamic metropolis with a diverse population and culture, Hong Kong boasts a rich tapestry of traditions, creativity and innovation. Its thriving arts scene provides a fertile ground for collaboration and inspiration. Engagement in the global network facilitates the exchange of forward-looking practices, encouraging innovation and excellence in the local arts community. SALOON Hong Kong serves as a vital space for women-identifying art professionals to connect, share experiments and offer support to one another in their artistic endeavours.
https://www.instagram.com/saloon.hongkong/
Media Inquiry
SALOON Hong Kong
Email: hongkong@saloon-network.org
IG: @saloon.hongkong
Location
Library, Goethe-Institut Hongkong
14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai
Hong Kong
China
14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai
Hong Kong
China