MINE PROJECT is pleased to present “- – – – – – – – – – / / / / – – – -,” a solo exhibition of new works by New York-based and Hong Kong-born artist Lau Wai, whose practice investigates how history, fiction, personal memory and virtuality collide in the process of identity formations. Featuring works across video, prints and installation, “- – – – – – – – – – / / / / – – – -” explores how current social conditions and the influences of emerging technologies re-inform and reshape the ways in which we perceive ourselves, construct our memories, and understand the realities. It is the artist’s first gallery solo exhibition in Hong Kong as well as her first time showing with the gallery.

The three-part-installation consists of single and multi-channel videos, photographic prints and objects. The large-scale prints are filled with digital pixels generated from 360-degree scans of the artist’s bodies in different forms. The fragmented bodies are the result of inevitable distortion through the computer-generating process from mobile applications. These fragments stream through the work like rivers and waterfalls. The countless data are conjured to form three-dimensional virtual representations of the self, looping in the air.

The Moments presented on lightboxes feature past events extracted from the artist’s personal iCloud. They flow through the lit container and struggle to maintain their permanence or visual resolution.

T318k V399k 0.1 and T318k V399k 0.2 are enlarged computer-generated digital representations of the artist dressed in a fake motion capture suit, performing a character named the Pre-CGI body. The titles are constructed with letters and numbers，which illustrate how our digitized bodies are named and presented back to us, the users, through the software.

Feed 3.0 is a three-channel video work presenting the Pre-CGI body who struggles to identify their reality and locate their past.

Technology and the digital world have become an inseparable part of human life. How do we survive in a digitized future? How can we locate our past in the future to make sense of who we are, when our past is disappearing?

About the Artist

Lau Wai (b. 1982, Hong Kong) utilizes photography, video, object and installation to explore the multilateral constructions of identity in relation to race, gender and the notion of belonging. She attempts to investigate how history, fiction, personal memory and virtuality collide in the process of identity formations. Her research and material sources range from personal and historical archives to cinematic imagery, popular culture and digital media.

Her works are collected by M+ Museum (Hong Kong); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (United States); and Alexander Tutsek – Stiftung Foundation (Germany), amongst others. She has exhibited around the world, including Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2019 & 2021); Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2020); The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, United States (2019); Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2018); Kuandu Biennale, Taiwan (2018); Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2015 & 2018); Kunstmuseum Brandts, Denmark (2016); Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, Japan (2015).

Lau Wai received her BA in Fine art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 2007 and received her MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University in 2020.

The artist currently lives and works in New York.