Group
1
Theme: Immigration, the influx of mainland Chinese into Hong Kong and the overwhelming issues a small town immigrant has to deal with upon arrival in a large city. Immigration is the doorway to a new life... prosperity and excitement.
The sculpture represents the Hong Kong train station platform. Upon arrival, arrows point in all directions. All one's earthly possessions are in two bags that rest on the platform.
The musical score is quick, chaotic and strangely tribal but with a pulsating urban groove... The immigrant is pulled in many directions as the urban tribe gradually draws the newcomer into the fold.
Group 4
Theme: Falun Gong and the family.
The sculpture represented a house which rotated upon a plinth juxtaposed with a stationary house adjacent to the plinth.
The students' performance depicted a family in conflict through divorce.
A child struggles to deal with change and upheaval, reaching out to preoccupied parents.
|
|
Group
2
Theme: The digestive system - consumption to expulsion.
The sculpture represents the multiple doorways: i.e. the mouth, esophagus, stomach, bowels, all the way through to the anus.
In an hilarious performance the students depicted a piece of food being eaten and digested. One student performed the role of food morsel, the other students enacted the teeth, tongue, stomach, etc....
Concurrently the group members played a musical score with separate musical themes; depicting through sound each stage in the digestive process.
Group 5
Theme: War.
The students were very concerned and worried about the potential for violent conflict. In 2000, China was in the process of testing missiles in the waters off the coast of Taiwan. The students saw war as a doorway to freedom for Taiwan OR as a doorway to reunification for China.
The sculpture was constructed in two sections, one very large canon-like structure representing China, juxtaposed with a much smaller piece representing Taiwan which was dwarfed by comparison.
The musical score grew in intensity with accelerating crescendos and diminuendos played upon the drum-like buckets on the canon structure (China) contrasted with trembling rattles played on the smaller structure (Taiwan).
|
|
Group
3
Theme: Communism, protest and the issue of China's impending rule over Hong Kong.
The students saw the takeover of Hong Kong as the doorway to oppression, and saw protest as the doorway to democracy.
The sculpture depicts the bumpy road between the larger-than-life structure of militaristic power and the small disorganized citizens' group struggling to protest.
The performance unfolds as a dialogue commencing with a rigid musical theme representing the power structure. Gradually the "citizens" gain strength. The powers-that-be are compelled to back off, but they continue to watch carefully. Big brother is watching . . .
Group 6
Theme: The delicate balance of the planet, a sculpture of balances surrounded by debris.
A performer balances on a teeter-totter while playing music on a scale representing the planet.
At the outset all is in balance. Outside forces travel an uneven path toward the centre, struggling to maintain their own balance. Upon reaching the centre they lose their balance, wreaking havoc and causing the disintegration of the planetary scale followed by the collapse of the teeter-totter upon which mankind was so precariously balanced.
|
