Thursday, August 26, 2010

Isaac Julien: Ten Thousand Waves (installation)

Isaac Julien's Ten Thousand Waves is an audiovisual film installation inspired by the Morecambe Bay tragedy in Northern England, where 23 Chinese cocklepickers died in 2004. The installation, completed in 2010, combines fact, fiction, and poetry, set against a background of Chinese history. The film was shot in the Guanxi province and at Shanghai Film Studios. Featuring Maggie Cheung as the goddess Mazu (the goddess who brings fishermen to shelter). The poet Wang Ping wrote the poem Little Boats / Pienet veneet for the installation.
Shot on 35 mm, projected in HD, with 9.2 surround sound, 50 min
Produced by LUMA Foundation.
Nine screens and Endura Ultra photographs.

Taidehalli, Helsinki, 21 Aug-10 Oct 2010

A high profile exhibition opened at the Helsinki Festival. KAVA participated also by screening two films by Isaac Julien at Cinema Orion. In Helsinki, the Ten Thousand Waves installation is organized into three big rooms with nine screens. The Morecambe Bay tragedy of the cockleshell pickers is the shock opening that leads us into the modern reality, history and mythology of China. The soundspace is meditative, the photographs are glossy, and Maggie Cheung brings a wuxia dimension to the experience.

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