On the Heavens 3.0
2023, Fringe Club (Anita Chan Lai-Ling Gallery), Hong Kong
Joint exhibition “The Magnificent Eight”
This work is a fusion of two video artworks, specifically "On the Heavens 2.1" (2018) and "Embodiment" (2022).
It explores the concept of a future myth, imagining a scenario in which space colonists in the vast cosmos are amazed and grateful for the pioneering efforts of Earth's early astronauts who established the "New World". Over generations, the astronaut sublimes into a supreme being, retaining both human characteristics and a trans-human structure infused with Earth culture.
Through reductionism, the work seeks to comprehend how the space colonists create this supreme being in their own image, and how it is elevated to the status of a god through daily worship, with religious beliefs ultimately becoming a tool of worship.
The future deity is then deconstructed into digital sculptures, accompanied by audio narration of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception", in an attempt to stimulate contemplation on time, perception, and consciousness from an embodied perspective.