Zeng Hong
“Key-Frame Extraction” NOV. 14, 2015 – JAN. 31, 2016
Key-Frame Extraction is made up of 5 single-channel videos and 1 audio work. The videos show a group of quarrymen, whose job is to collect bricks from the ruins of demolished houses so as to recirculate them. These stone collectors are comprised of family units from Hebei, couples and individuals from Sichuan who have come together but have no familial bond with the other travellers. There is an organized hierarchy of labour that surfaces in this community: the couples from Sichuan get the job of recycling most of the bricks that are above ground, couples from Hebei unearth and recycle the bricks from the under-ground foundations, while vagrants and individuals without any social bonds can only seek to recycle the random and difficult monolithic sections of bricks left among the architectural debris.
Each of the 5 single-channel videos is focused on a single person, who, work endlessly, day after day, repeating monotonous movements with simple tools. In contrast with the technological spectacles of production in the industrialized outside world, the landscape of ruins and the simple physicality of labour here make it a world unto it’s own. It is as if society had returned to a different time when manual labour was our natural status as we were the only means of production. In this scene the old Chinese maxim that “physical health is the foundation of everything” still exerts power but has lost it’s meaning. There are 4 video monitors placed on the floor and one larger scale projection on the back wall of the gallery behind the TV’s creating a stage like setting for actors in a play. The video projection is of an old man, a vagrant, working slowly and alone. The camera angle is from above looking down at him, which is a subtle reference to the usual socialist realism portraits where figures are always shown from below looking up which creates a heroic bigger than life pose. On the video monitors on the floor, a Hebei couple and 2 Sichuan individuals are filmed with the same downward looking lens. By placing each person onto separate monitors they are separated and detached from any family or geographic ties. No matter their social caste they are all equal in their plight and fate. Zeng Hong’s intention in this is to illustrate this equality of being across the social and political strata and it’s common fate.
In the small gallery is a solitary speaker on a stand of the floor. It stares at you blankly as you enter the room hissing superimposed recorded sounds from radio signals and factory workplaces. It is unsympathetic, monotonous, and without end and seems to audibly bridge the two galleries by giving voice to the silent videos, a soundtrack for the lonely individuals and their place in some sort of abstract collective workforce.
The title of the show, Key-Frame Extraction, is a highly technical term describing a method for intelligent extraction of key-frames from a video that can depict and direct (change) meaningful content in the video.
曾宏
《抽幀》 2015.11.14 – 2016.01.31
《抽帧》由五个单频录像和一件音频作品组成。影像拍摄了一群采石工，他们负责在推倒的房屋废墟中回收整块的砖头，以供重新流通。这些采石工由以家庭为单位的河北人夫妇、以老乡为单位的四川人和没有任何关系依靠的游民共同组成。有组织的四川人从承包者手中取得地面上大面积的砖块回收工作，河北人夫妇取得地基以下砖块的回收工作，没有任何社会组织关系的游民则只能在建筑垃圾中找寻还可以回收的完整砖块。
在展出的五个单频录像中，每一个屏幕对应一个单独的个人，在每天漫长的工作中，以简单的工具重复着乏味的几个动作。相对于外界丰富多变的景观和生产方式，这片废墟是一个封闭的世界，仿佛回到了最接近“自然状态”的地理位置，人在这里成为了单一的生产资料，而“身体是革命的本钱”则得到了充足的印证。在影像的组成中，大屏幕中的游民《老人》身处高处，却使用了俯视的镜头拍摄，从而提示出一种隐蔽的矛盾关系，而在他极度缓慢的动作和无谓的停顿中，劳动被赋予的强制意义则被不断稀释。地面上展出的小屏录像中的河北人夫妇和四川人则使用了俯视镜头，并在后期剪辑中被强行分开。通过屏幕的组成，艺术家也试图在主观意识中赋予这些影像一种平等关系，既：无论是没有任何社会关系依附的游民、还是最小单位的家庭和以老乡为依附的集体，在“自然状态”中，都摆脱不了孤独的个人命运。
小厅里播放的是一段由收音机里提取的噪音和工厂车间里的声音合成的音频，与外界静默的影像相呼应，似乎印证着孤独的个人与某种抽象的共同体之间相互敌视和依存的关系，也隐喻了个人对政治体的向往和依赖。
1974年生于四川资阳, 现生活工作北京。
Born: 1974, Ziyang, Sichuan, lives and works in Beijing
“Key-Frame Extraction” NOV. 14, 2015 – JAN. 31, 2016
Key-Frame Extraction is made up of 5 single-channel videos and 1 audio work. The videos show a group of quarrymen, whose job is to collect bricks from the ruins of demolished houses so as to recirculate them. These stone collectors are comprised of family units from Hebei, couples and individuals from Sichuan who have come together but have no familial bond with the other travellers. There is an organized hierarchy of labour that surfaces in this community: the couples from Sichuan get the job of recycling most of the bricks that are above ground, couples from Hebei unearth and recycle the bricks from the under-ground foundations, while vagrants and individuals without any social bonds can only seek to recycle the random and difficult monolithic sections of bricks left among the architectural debris.
Each of the 5 single-channel videos is focused on a single person, who, work endlessly, day after day, repeating monotonous movements with simple tools. In contrast with the technological spectacles of production in the industrialized outside world, the landscape of ruins and the simple physicality of labour here make it a world unto it’s own. It is as if society had returned to a different time when manual labour was our natural status as we were the only means of production. In this scene the old Chinese maxim that “physical health is the foundation of everything” still exerts power but has lost it’s meaning. There are 4 video monitors placed on the floor and one larger scale projection on the back wall of the gallery behind the TV’s creating a stage like setting for actors in a play. The video projection is of an old man, a vagrant, working slowly and alone. The camera angle is from above looking down at him, which is a subtle reference to the usual socialist realism portraits where figures are always shown from below looking up which creates a heroic bigger than life pose. On the video monitors on the floor, a Hebei couple and 2 Sichuan individuals are filmed with the same downward looking lens. By placing each person onto separate monitors they are separated and detached from any family or geographic ties. No matter their social caste they are all equal in their plight and fate. Zeng Hong’s intention in this is to illustrate this equality of being across the social and political strata and it’s common fate.
In the small gallery is a solitary speaker on a stand of the floor. It stares at you blankly as you enter the room hissing superimposed recorded sounds from radio signals and factory workplaces. It is unsympathetic, monotonous, and without end and seems to audibly bridge the two galleries by giving voice to the silent videos, a soundtrack for the lonely individuals and their place in some sort of abstract collective workforce.
The title of the show, Key-Frame Extraction, is a highly technical term describing a method for intelligent extraction of key-frames from a video that can depict and direct (change) meaningful content in the video.
曾宏
《抽幀》 2015.11.14 – 2016.01.31
《抽帧》由五个单频录像和一件音频作品组成。影像拍摄了一群采石工，他们负责在推倒的房屋废墟中回收整块的砖头，以供重新流通。这些采石工由以家庭为单位的河北人夫妇、以老乡为单位的四川人和没有任何关系依靠的游民共同组成。有组织的四川人从承包者手中取得地面上大面积的砖块回收工作，河北人夫妇取得地基以下砖块的回收工作，没有任何社会组织关系的游民则只能在建筑垃圾中找寻还可以回收的完整砖块。
在展出的五个单频录像中，每一个屏幕对应一个单独的个人，在每天漫长的工作中，以简单的工具重复着乏味的几个动作。相对于外界丰富多变的景观和生产方式，这片废墟是一个封闭的世界，仿佛回到了最接近“自然状态”的地理位置，人在这里成为了单一的生产资料，而“身体是革命的本钱”则得到了充足的印证。在影像的组成中，大屏幕中的游民《老人》身处高处，却使用了俯视的镜头拍摄，从而提示出一种隐蔽的矛盾关系，而在他极度缓慢的动作和无谓的停顿中，劳动被赋予的强制意义则被不断稀释。地面上展出的小屏录像中的河北人夫妇和四川人则使用了俯视镜头，并在后期剪辑中被强行分开。通过屏幕的组成，艺术家也试图在主观意识中赋予这些影像一种平等关系，既：无论是没有任何社会关系依附的游民、还是最小单位的家庭和以老乡为依附的集体，在“自然状态”中，都摆脱不了孤独的个人命运。
小厅里播放的是一段由收音机里提取的噪音和工厂车间里的声音合成的音频，与外界静默的影像相呼应，似乎印证着孤独的个人与某种抽象的共同体之间相互敌视和依存的关系，也隐喻了个人对政治体的向往和依赖。
1974年生于四川资阳, 现生活工作北京。
Born: 1974, Ziyang, Sichuan, lives and works in Beijing
