Patricia Piccinini After Hours
An intimate and informal series of conversations over three Saturdays, Patricia Piccinini After Hours explores some of the ideas in the exhibition HOPE—about the nature of history, progress, and technology, and about our collective ability to create warm and caring relationships and to live lovingly with each other.
With works that re-imagine the relationship between “us humans” and “others”, Patricia Piccinini opens up a space for reflection. How are the interrelations between technology, nature, and various species changing amidst rapid scientific advances? How should we as humans change the ways we think about and live with other species?
Join Patricia Piccinini After Hours to hear from a fascinating spectrum of speakers working in dance, Feng shui, history, and literature, including Izumi Nakayama, Lai Tsz Yuen, Samwai Lam, Albert Tam, Elysa Wendi, and Thierry Chow. They will chat, joke, and digress on a broad range of topics, centred around the themes and artistic practices encountered in HOPE—Patricia Piccinini.
Biohacking the Body, Abilities, and Memories
24 June 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Speakers: Izumi Nakayama, Elysa Wendi
As a visually challenging exhibition, HOPE—Patricia Piccinini raises many questions about normative standards, multispecies relations, and increasing technological interventions into bodies. In this vein, it might be productive to look at biohacking: while biohacking focuses on transcending the corporeal limitations of the human body, it also problematically reproduces the notion of a uniform set of “normal” abilities.
In this conversation between Izumi Nakayama, a scholar of body, gender, and technology, and Elysa Wendi, a choreographic film maker and artist, we will consider the theoretical aspirations and limitations of biohacking and discuss the multiplicity of bodies, abilities, and its embodied memories.
Our Distance to Frankenstein
8 July 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Speakers: Samwai Lam, Albert Tam
A masterpiece of horror and macabre, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) has long been influential in how we think about “monsters” and the non-human, in particular “unexpected consequences”. Indeed, Frankenstein subsequently defined some of the parameters of the genre of science fiction. Frankenstein has also deeply influenced the artist Patricia Piccinini, who in turn emphasises the need for compassion towards the non-human, including scientifically modified organisms.
This conversation between two writers, Samwai Lam and Albert Tam, will delve into certain science-fiction works of literature and film; along the way, they will consider the possibilities for multi-species co-existence in a technological age centred on the human.
A Dialogue from Feng Shui to Contemporary Technology
29 July 3:00pm – 4:30pm
Speakers: Thierry Chow, Lai Tsz Yuen
Fascinated by various “unexpected consequences” of progress, Patricia Piccinini has long explored the entanglements between humanity, animals, nature, and technology. She has long tried to break down or blur the boundaries between these categories—which in a way de-centres the role of the human and problematises the divisions between “reason” and “unreason”.
Looking at Feng shui might therefore offer something intriguing. As an ancient Chinese technology, Feng Shui is a system of correlations that integrates humanity and nature; it also serves as a mechanism to help us make decisions. Faced with uncertainties that constantly arise in our lives, how do a Feng Shui master and a philosopher interpret numerology and divination, and overcome the ecology of exceptions?
Venue: 2/F JC Contemporary
This event will be conducted in Cantonese and English, with simultaneous interpretation into Cantonese or English, respectively.
The events are free but do not include tickets to the exhibition HOPE—Patricia Piccinini. Please refer to Klook and on-site ticketing for ticketing details.