Canton Novelty
2016 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
27:38 minutes
Fang Lu
Canton Novelty by Fang Lu captures the adventure of a group of three girls, Ruohan, Lily and Zoe on a summer vacation in Guangzhou, China. Throughout the course of the trip, they film themselves with their cell phones singing in a karaoke room, shopping at a hardware store, sitting at a park, hanging out in a hotel room and exploring a neighborhood looking at vacant apartment ads. Although their days may seem uneventful, the girls seemingly discover the ability to perform impossible “miracles,” including cooking a full pot of rice from three grains, summoning objects to appear and disappear, and turning off street lamps on command. Drawing inspiration from daily life is the overarching theme found in Lu’s body of work. Here, instead of visiting historical landmarks and seeking out-of-the-ordinary amusements, the group creates extraordinary moments while simply walking down the street or eating at a restaurant table. Canton Novelty exemplifies the artist’s signature style of filmmaking that she has progressively developed in the past ten years. This includes transforming simple tasks and everyday actions into built up tensions between the choreographed and the unrehearsed, filming women in domestic spheres in such a way in which they become instruments of performativity (gender roles), and creating superficial environments, or “situated reality” that examine hidden truths from daily experience that are often dismissed.
Fang Lu uses intimacy as a place for self-expression in her videos and draws out mundane moments from everyday life as a strategy to heighten one’s awareness of existence from the rest of the world. Instead of using the camera as a tool to document or capture, she stages a superficial experience, or “situated reality,” that locates the self in relation to a relationship, environment, or idealistic notion. For example, examining behavioral patterns of being in love or being sequestered in an empty building with nothing but circulated online images. For Fang, there is no one reality and everyone creates her own reality. Thus, her practice is an ongoing exploration of self-awareness and seeking realization of truths within experience, and the content in and direction of her videos are directly influenced by her immediate and living environment.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » ARTS EQUATOR
The performing arts industry of Malaysia is drowning | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre July 13, 2021 By Joe Hasham (986 words, 2-minute read) As many parts of Southeast Asia are hit by recurrent waves of Covid 19 infections, arts industries across the region face imminent collapse due to prolonged closures and scant state support...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (1–7 October 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do October 1, 2018 Lopung Is Dead! – Pangrok Sulap’s Inaugural Solo Exhibition , at A+ Works of Art, 4–27 Oct Artist collective Pangrok Sulap’s first solo exhibition comprises recent and ongoing work...
![Elevación [Elevation]](https://kadist.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/IMG_escena001_3513-scaled.jpg)
© » KADIST
Ana María Millán
2019Interested in role-play and videogames, Ana María Millán developed workshops with different communities in order to create characters and scenarios for her animations, often in collaboration with a choreographer...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
“Cloth as Land” at JMKAC Presents Textiles as a Wellspring of Hmong Indigeneity Skip to content Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj, “I sat closely and watched it crumble and unraveled and crumbled and unraveled and...” (2023), Coca-Cola can and embroidery thread (image courtesy the artist) HMong* indigeneity is complicated by centuries of political conflicts, displacement, erasure, and disorientation in HMong homelands of China and Southeast Asia...
© » KADIST
Jason Meadows
2011Titled afterTruman Capote’s protagonist famously played by Audrey Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Holly Golightly (2011) captures the essence of the character: seductive and bold, mysterious and capricious...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Podcast 85: Singapore Theatre, Year in Review | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints December 14, 2020 In our end-of-year roundup, Nabilah Said, Naeem Kapadia and Matt Lyon take stock of the year in Singapore theatre, alongside guests Lee Shu Yu from Centre 42 and Max Yam from Arts Republic...
© » PIER 24
Pier 24 Bay Area Reporter includes Looking Forward in their fall exhibition roundup - Pier 24 Bay Area Reporter includes Looking Forward in their fall exhibition roundup September 5, 2022 John Chiara, selected works from Beyond Here Lies Nothing in the exhibition Looking Forward: Ten Years of Pier 24 Photography (installation view)...
© » HIGH FRUCTOSE
Alex Graham La Luz De Jesus Gallery director Matthew Gardocki overheard a phrase that would go on to loosely inspire an upcoming show at the space: "I Saw You Post About It." He took that broad concept and invited a group of female artists—Isabella Cancino, Alex Graham, Mayon Hanania, Carmen McNall, Sea Monster, and Patty Spyrakos—to contribute to a show under that banner...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
Chinese woman, unhappy over 30-year arranged marriage, writes viral poems of love and resignation | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement China society + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more 13:58 Love, freedom and resignation: the chronicles of a Chinese village poet Love, freedom and resignation: the chronicles of a Chinese village poet Lifestyle Family & Relationships Video | Chinese woman, unhappy over 30-year arranged marriage, writes viral poems of love and resignation Han Shimei, who lives in a rural community in China’s Henan province, has been trapped in an unhappy marriage for 30 years Her poems about life and longing for love became a sensation after posting them on video-sharing app Kuaishou China society + FOLLOW Thomas Yau in Shanghai + FOLLOW Published: 11:00am, 11 Feb, 2024 Why you can trust SCMP Han Shimei is a 52-year-old woman living in a rural community in China’s central province of Henan...
© » KADIST
Lim Sokchanlina
2017The photographic series Wrapped Future II by Lim Sokchanlina brings fences used on construction sites to enclose the surrounding areas, to different locations, lakes, valleys and forests; and places them at the center of works to obscure the beautiful Cambodian landscape...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Behind the scenes with the Women of SIFA | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles SIFA February 13, 2020 By Nabilah Said ArtsEquator speaks to four women that are part of the local commissions of SIFA 2020 – Siti Khalijah Zainal , Jodi Chan , Ellison Tan and Mia Chee ...
