The Futura Is Here

Artist Statement of Practice

When History Repeats Itself

by

Geoff Leung

Our population is growing at a cumulative rate, the profound effect it has on our society is changing the way we think, shaping how we behave and interact with the world and each other. Already we have examples of this phenomenon, between the 1960‘s - 80‘s, before its demolition Kowloon Walled City was once thought to be the most overcrowded place on Earth, ungoverned and unregulated structures were built by it’s inhabitants formed by refugees and squatters. Author William Gibson described the city in his notes

“An outlaw place. And more and more people crowded in; they built it up, higher. No rules, just building, just people living. Police wouldn’t go there. Drugs and whores and gambling. But people living, too. Factories, restaurants. A city. No laws.”

As the world fills up with more mouths with ever increasing words and ideas, the world is becoming a louder nd nosier place, dense with information and consumption done in blinding speed. According to the United Nations Population Fund by 2030 80% of the worlds population will live in cities, as we live and work next to strangers on a near constant basis what effect will we have on the development of our cities, culture and each other?

 In parallel to this our technological advances is accelerating too, allowing us to carry powerful computers on portable and wireless platforms. The miniaturization of computer chips has allowed us to share data quicker and faster, according to IBM 90% of the worlds data was created 2 years ago, the start of 2013 saw Apple and Google activate more than 9 million handsets a month, over a 100 hours of video being uploaded to Youtube every minute. When images take less than a second to download, what value do we place in art crafted before us? What of Mona Lisa as she smiles in front of hundreds of digital cameras being pointed at her everyday, and Manet’s Water Lilies it’s serenity easily acquired and printed without ever leaving one’s home. The ability to reproduce in pin point accuracy has given rise to championing accessibility whilst over shadowing craft and the arduous task of art making.

When History Repeats Itself aims to explore these concepts, the work acts as memorial for the past whilst questioning the repetition of small events which have lasting consequences. Each work uses material appropriated from various city locations and is then reformed as an art object. Part I is made up of documents taken from primary and secondary sources, 100 circular images of varying sizes are mounted on clock mechanisms and placed in a disparate manner resembling a constellation. Images of demolition and construction sites tick side by side. Part II is a time stretched sound piece which captures the seconds it took for the demolition of the Red Road buildings in Glasgow, slowed down and looped. As the recording reverberates and churns in low frequency it revisits and examines a moment in history, echoing it’s lasting presence.
This latest work by Geoff Leung questions our history as it becomes digitalised and recorded to a sea of servers leaving behind the physical world, in years to come what objects will there be left when architecture itself, once built as symbol of human achievement becomes another product, demolished and rebuilt for consumer purposes.