Against Step

2019 - Installation (Installation)
14:00 minutes (looped)

In the nine-channel video installation, Against Step by Yim Sui Fong, a phantasmagorical image of a male dancer appears on a large-scale video projected on a floating retro-projection screen. His cathartic sequence of movements is based on an index of the bodily behavior of random people previously recorded by the artist while observing thousands of Hong Kong citizens in public space. Some of this recorded footage, done in poor mobile video quality, is played on loop in a set of TV monitors placed below the large projection. The dancer’s constant altering of movement patterns (his landing of each step, conscious adjustments, and manifestations of mental states) is a proposed expressive choreography to avoid the detection of ‘Gait Recognition’: the surveillance system that identifies and controls individuals based on their habitual motions and limb movements. Against Step is an exercise of non-predetermined movements, a continuous step/dance of resistance where the price of freedom, for possible escape from surveillance technology control, is based on trading one’s personality—to abandon one’s self. The meaning of surveillance in Hong Kong has radically shifted in the rapidly changing political environment. A police state exercising fear upon the community, driven by the territory’s security legislation after the massive public protests in 2019. A reality that later morphed into a dystopian medicalized control apparatus following Covid-19; numbing the bodies and psyches of its inhabitants. Though this work was made prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it may well be read within Hong Kong’s inherent societal codes of hygiene and fear that have structured the territory’s collective memory.

Through moving image and video installations, Yim Sui Fong’s practice is primarily focused on her interest in performativity; how an individual or collective body navigates the lines of social mobility in an increasingly controlled public sphere. Utilizing movement and scored actions, Yim explores the uneasiness that individuals face today, highlighting the relationship amongst people and the potential found in collectivity. Through choreographed propositions, her work provides a platform to connect people’s perceptions, while unpacking the perplexity and imagination of social phenomena. Yim’s work often intervenes in real-life space, or borrows from it, revealing relationships among people, objects, and places. Another aspect of Yim’s practice is her interest in oral history, appearing in her semi-fictional and semi-realistic audio-visual narratives. Aside from her practice as an artist, Yim is also an active figure in Hong Kong as co-founder of the artist-run organization Rooftop Institute and member of the artist collective L sub, where she further connects with the larger community.

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