Artists in person!
Microscope is very pleased to present a screening of works in film, video, and performance by Queens-based artists Morrison Gong and Erica Sheu, as part of our emerging artist series YES. Although informed by different life experiences, both Gong and Sheu tackle themes of national identity, cultural backgrounds, gender, eroticism and intimacy — often through very personal and poetic perspectives — in their individual as well as in their collaborative work.
In the four 16mm and Super 8mm films by Sheu in the program, the artist starts with events of everyday life to consider her origins and the concept of home in a foreign country, often drawing by hand on the filmstrip or featuring text from books, as well as setting the images in dialogue with each other through double-channel or split-screen.
Gong's work centers around ritual, sexuality, and the transgression of cultural traditions, frequently treating body, food, animal bones, butterfly wings, etc. as material. Most of the artist's moving image works consist of collages or slideshows of still photography, digital scans, and fixed-camera shots, often with references to or featuring the work of Nan Goldin, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Carolee Schneemann, among others.
Closing the night is a new collaborative, multiple projector performance “Immoral Tales” by the two artists — featuring Super 8mm and 16mm film, 35mm slides and digital video — accompanied by a live score by Yifan Guo. Among the projections are excerpts from “Ne Zha Nao Hai”, a 1979 Chinese animated film about the myth of Prince Nezha and his triumph against the Dragon King; virtual porn games; 70s Taiwanese propaganda; excerpts from "Twenty-Two" a documentary about Korean and Chinese “comfort women” during WWII; scratch film loops; handmade 35mm slides; and original video shot by the two artists.
Gong and Sheu will be in attendance and available for a Q&A following the screening and performance.
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Morrison Gong is an artist pursuing a BFA in Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design with a minor in Moving Image Arts. Their work investigates how corporeal traumas and sensations reinforce the definition of female gaze. Gong has showed their work nationally and internationally, at Vox Populi Gallery, Manhattan Independent Film Festival, and Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival. Gong currently lives and works in Queens, NY.
Erica Sheu is an experimental filmmaker who works with celluloid film. Her work often reflects on the diasporic identities and the mechanisms of filmmaking. She holds a BA in English from National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan. Her work has shown at The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York, Detour Gallery (ISFF) in New Jersey, Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong, and 2018 Taiwan Biennial in Taiwan. She is currently based in Queens, New York.
More info and full program at www.microscopegallery.com