Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

So, a lot of the material were life …. I was remaking my bedroom in that installation. So, I brought
exactly my same bed to the gallery and there are a lot of objects that are kind of … whatever you call
it … the „real objects“, the „ready-mades“ which transform it into a gallery space plus video and
internet.
So, the material is a wide range of things that include a lot of personal things, photographs, videos,
news clips, air tickets, diaries, books.
I am trying to use all these kinds of objects to construct a meaning. So, it was quite … in terms of
material it was very much … My challenge ‒ by that time ‒ was to how I make sense of this material,
how to categorize them, where do I put them.
Well, the original work … one of the reasons why it was censored was because I eventually had 176
guys as my partners. The material was very intangible. These people were of course the material, the
partners. And it was a very short-lived moment ‒ for 45 minutes.
I would say the privacy issues like how much your relationship or your objects would tell about other
people’s stories, too. I think all these kinds of things are … in terms of … not really the physical thing
but … about other people’s stories, about other people’s lives that are interlinked from … originating
from your … the artist’s story.

Isaac Leung / Material

Bio

* 1978, Leung is a practicing artist, curator and researcher in art and culture. Leung received an Honorary Fellowship of a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the New Media Art Department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the University of the Arts London. The creative practice in artistic and curatorial projects has prompted him to conduct substantial research on art and culture. Leung is currently a doctorate researcher at the School of Creative Media, the City University of Hong Kong, specializing in the contemporary Chinese art market. From 1998-2008, his artworks were exhibited in over 30 venues across the globe. In 2002, Leung was appointed as the Programme Director of the media art organization Videotage. In 2013, Leung was appointed as the Chairman of Videotage.

Transcript

PDF

Credits

The interview was conducted November 28, 2014 at the artist’s office at the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Banny Ng

Edited by: Wolfram Eggebrecht

Transcript by: Yvonne Mattern

Produced by: Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Connecting Spaces Documents #5

Special thanks to: The Hong Kong Institute of Education