Award-winning Singapore multidisciplinary fine artist Sarah Choo seems to have a special ability to see beyond the surface of things. For the series of work presented in her latest solo exhibition - titled Flights of the Mind - at Art Projects Gallery in Hong Kong, Choo’s inspiration came from an unlikely source – Hong Kong’s public transportation, in the forms of the electric trams and the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) that serves millions of passengers each day. It is from this public realm of daily commute, with its immense volume and flow of people and (non)encounters that provided the fertile grounds for Choo’s creative explorations. Working with photography and video and digital media, Choo alters the dimensions of time and space in her images. Her mesmerizing works cast new light onto common scenes of daily life turning them into imageries of ethereal beauty that evoke deeper reflections.
“Over time, you begin to construct a mental map, a collection of favored destinations and preferred routes: a labyrinth no other person could ever precisely duplicate nor reproduce. Loneliness, I began to realize, was a populated place: a city in itself.” Sarah Choo Jing, 2016
Flights of the Mind presents an intersection of ongoing trajectories on a journey. Taking on the role as an anonymous voyeur; Choo observes and re-presents constructed coincidences and happenings on the Mass Transit Railway in Hong Kong.
Taking the viewer through time, the artist patrols the space between the real and the constructed, the actual and the imagined; between intimacy and estrangement. Through observing actual characters and moments in time, she presents a composite of documented footages; suggesting a potential narrative within an increasingly isolated urban aquarium.
Occasionally chasing and often searching for a temporal connection with strangers, Choo emphasizes on the very act of waiting and exemplifies on the deliberate slowing down of time. There is an uneasy recognition that the encountered scenes are lacerated culminations of the past, present and future. With a clear absence in communication, estranged passengers are taken from one point to another, in-between moments; in-transit.
About Sarah Choo Jing
Sarah Choo Jing (b.1990) is a Multidisciplinary Fine Artist who has recently completed her MFA in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Art, University College of London. Focusing on the relationship between space and time, Choo’s work depicts identifiable moments and characters within contemporary society. Intentionally constructed, the artist reflects upon social and cultural norms.
Choo has recently been awarded First Place in the Moving Images Category at the Moscow International Foto Awards 2015. She has also been shortlisted as a Finalist in the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2014. In 2013, she was awarded the ICON De Martell Cordon Bleu Photography Award and Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Still Photography Award.
The artist has since represented Singapore at the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival 2016, Art Paris 2015 which took place at the Grand Palais in Paris, Photo London 2015 which took place at The Somerset House and Cinema Total 2014, organized by Collegium Hungaricum, Berlin. Her works have been exhibited and collected locally and internationally at organizations such as the Singapore Art Museum and the Busan Museum in Korea.
A recipient of the Lee Kwan Yew Gold Medal Award, Choo has been awarded The Photographer of The Year in the Fine Art Photography category at the 4th International Pollux Awards, USA. In 2012, she was a Finalist for the 3rd edition Julia Margaret Cameron Award, at The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards in Europe. That summer, she received several Honorable Mentions at the International Photography Awards.
屢獲殊榮的新加坡多學科藝術家，朱婧，似乎有能夠看到超越表面的東西的特殊能力。是次在藝途畫廊的個展《心靈的航班》，朱婧將展出的一系列最新創作，靈感來源竟是意想不到的香港公共交通工具，如電車和地鐵，每天有數以百萬的乘客穿梭其中。亦正是這具有巨大人流量的公共領域，人們每日習以如常的擦肩而過，為朱婧提供了許多創作的探索空間。利用攝影、視頻和數字媒體為創作媒介，朱婧重疊不同時間段所拍攝的圖像，從而改變了畫面的時空。朱婧的作品將生活中常見的場景，轉化成有如夢幻般的畫面，試圖喚起人們更深層次的反思。
“隨著時間的推移，你開始構建一個心理地圖，集合了青睞的目的地和首選路線；一個任何其他人都無法準確的複製或製作的迷宮。孤獨，我開始意識到，是一個人口稠密的地方：本身就是一個城市。”──朱婧，2016
《心靈的航班》呈現一個旅程中，眾多持續軌道的交叉點。像個匿名偷窺者，朱婧觀察並重新構建在香港地鐵所發生的巧合和情景。
藝術家徘徊在真實與虛擬、實際與幻想、親密與陌生之間，通過作品帶領人們穿越時空。通過對實際角色和瞬間的觀察，她將捕捉了的實錄，集合為一體；意味著一個日益孤立的城市水族館內的潛在敘事。
偶爾追逐並經常尋找與陌生人的時間連接，朱婧強調等待的行為並故意將時間放緩。所遇到的場景，像是極度划過過去、現在與未來的景象，另人感到不安。明顯的毫無溝通，彼此陌生的同路人從一個點帶到另一個，當中的時刻；在途中。
關於朱婧
朱婧（1990年生）是個多學科藝術家，近期畢業于倫敦大學學院斯莱德美術學院，獲美術媒體系碩士學位。著重空間與時間之間的關係，朱婧的作品描繪當代社會中可識別的時刻和人物。經藝術家有意的營造，試圖反應社會和文化規範。
朱婧於2015年莫斯科國際攝影大獎中的移動圖像類別榮獲第一名。她也入圍了2014年的Sovereign傑出亞洲藝術獎。於2013年，榮獲藍帶馬爹利非凡藝術人物攝影獎及郭令裕傑出攝影獎。
藝術家也曾代表新加坡參與於2016年的第19屆日本媒體藝術節、2015年於巴黎大皇宮舉辦的藝術巴黎、於2015年薩默塞特府舉辦的倫敦攝影展會及由Collegium Hungaricum於柏林舉辦的Cinema Total 2014。她的作品也獲多個海內外機構收藏和展出，如新加坡美術館和韓國釜山美術館。
李光耀金獎的獲獎人，朱婧榮獲第四屆位於美國的國際波利思獎美術攝影類別的年度攝影師獎。2012年，於歐洲的The Worldwide Photography Gala Awards, 她入圍了第三屆的Julia Margaret Cameron Award。同一個夏天，她也於國際攝影大獎上榮獲了多個榮譽獎項。 |
