The artist imagines an alternate future where movements slow down the tide of violence in public spheres.
“Rehearsal of the Futures: Leaderless,” (2020) envisions a future without a totalitarian leader and how it might impact spheres of collectivism, decentralization and altruism. By remodelling 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; and the nation one identifies with is forgotten. Performing a leaderless world, the exhibition reconciles us with powerlessness—the unanswered demands, the ignorance from authority and the denial of individual freedom. 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
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.
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 looking at large-scale gatherings, such as demonstrations Rehearsal of the Futures: Is the World Your Friend? (2018) investigates the role of the individual within those assemblages. The performance transforms the politically charged images with slowness and stillness through the possible futures that Chong imagines. By researching the repetitive body postures, gestures and movements of protestors in the history of protests, the performance rehearses and edits how we normally perceive the body in an attempt to reconcile with the suppressed individuals who suffered from state violence. Carrying each other in turn until the holder is shaking and exhausted; transforming a fight in slow motion, the subtle movements force 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