Para Site is proud to present Confidential Records: Overwrite, a solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist Vvzela Kook, presenting three chapters of Kook's science fiction series Confidential Records, ongoing since 2016. The exhibition is curated by Para Site Curator, Celia Ho.
The Confidential Records series originated in Kook's extensive research into the history of Kowloon Walled City, drawing inspiration from scientist Ray Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns to extrapolate a future in which the development of artificial intelligence is so advanced that it threatens the existence of humans. In Chapter 1 Dual Metropolitans, Kook constructs a fictional futuristic cityscape under the rule of AI, and reimagines the underground Kowloon Walled City as the last line of defence for the human race. In Chapter 2 Executions, the clash between AI and humanity reaches a climax, reflecting a universal condition of individual resistance in dystopian societies, and the parallelisms and entanglements between different totalitarian regimes in the past, present, and future.
Newly commissioned for this exhibition, the eponymous third chapter, Confidential Records: Overwrite, takes the form of a multimedia walk, where the audience is invited to follow a route out of the exhibition space and into the streets near Para Site, guided by a series of clues and instructions. These are laid down by the main character in the piece, an AI entity who had switched allegiance to humanity's side and now acts as a detective into the ideological transformation enforced on humanity by its AI rulers.
Kook's works denote a highly imaginative and all encompassing visual language, inviting the audience to an intense experience in her mixed architectural and cyber space, built through spatial and sensorial manipulation of the exhibition environment, 3D-printed objects, videos, and interactive installations.
Vvzela Kook (b.1990, lives and works in Hong Kong) graduated from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong with a MA in Creative Media. As a new media artist, she works in audiovisual mediums – including performance, theatre, computer graphics, and drawing. Her narration plays an important role in her work, in which transmedia storytelling is part of the artistic concept. The mixing of delicate drawings, 3D printing and video game optics in her videos especially show the wide range of media and materials usage to visually translate her research-based projects. Kook has shown her works at Para Site (2020), C-Lab Taipei (2019), MoCA Taipei (2019), Asia Society Hong Kong Centre (2019), Tai Kwun (2019), Microwave International Media Festival in Hong Kong (2018, 2016), PuSh Performing Art Festival in Vancouver(2017), Centre for Heritage Arts and Textile (2017), K11 Shanghai (2016), Hong Kong Arts Festival (2015), and '89+' program (2012) co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Simon Castets.
This exhibition is generously supported by Mimi & Chris Gradel, Stefano Del Vecchio, Kenneth Loo, Yi Ting Zheng & Franck Le Deu.
Para Site Art Space is financially supported by the Art Development Matching Grants Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The content of these activities does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
Vvzela Kook (b.1990, lives and works in Hong Kong) graduated from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong with a MA in Creative Media. As a new media artist, she works in audiovisual mediums – including performance, theatre, computer graphics, and drawing. Her narration plays an important role in her work, in which trans-media storytelling is part of the artistic concept. The mixing of delicate drawings, 3D printing and video game optics in her videos especially show the wide range of media and materials usage to visually translate her research-based projects.
Para Site is Hong Kong's leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications, discursive, and educational projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society.
