We are pleased to present ‘The Intelligence of Vanishing’, a screening programme curated by Yuhang Zhang, our 2022 PhD Scholar in ‘Advanced Practices’ at Goldsmiths, University of London. Bringing together moving-image works that explore scenes and narratologies of ‘vanishing’ in East Asia, the programme examines how our given sensibility of the ‘real’ is irrevocably lost in the sly plots of ‘bygones’.

From the investigatory bluntness and dramatisation of political assassination to the mundane and clandestine traces of assembly and discreteness, yet forever enticing, vanishing manifest as black holes, physical or cognitive, continually reshuffling the sensorial realms around them. This screening seeks to uncover the history and mechanisms of these black holes: in the silence within seeing, and in the blind spot of utterance.

The programme unfolds with AKA Dr Lecter, a performance lecture devised by Yuhang on East Asian urbanity and the abstract agency of evil. It is followed by the screening of works from Hsu Che-Yu, YAN Wai Yin, and Dan Li.

‘The Intelligence of Vanishing’ is part of Sine Screen’s ‘Vulnerable Histories’ season, a series of public events exploring the marginal histories of East and South East Asia and beyond.

FREE ENTRY, TICKET HERE

PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

6.10–6.30PM LECTURE PERFORMANCE

AKA Dr Lecter by Yuhang Zhang

Evil’s aporic intelligence: it retreats from existence before genesis yet casts us into the horror of its absence. AKA Dr Lecter is a performance meditation on the poiesis of evil, staged at the vigilance of a public park in urban Tokyo—where an impossible act of murder took place.

6.30–7.30PM SCREENING PROGRAMME

Hsu Che-Yu, The Making of Crime Scenes (2021, 22’00”)

After his release from prison, Wu Dun, formerly involved in an assassination, reinvented himself as a film producer and established a film company that produced wuxia films. In The Making of Crime Scenes, director Hsu Che-Yu returns to Wu’s now-abandoned studio to reconstruct the events surrounding the assassination through forensic scanning techniques.

YAN Wai Yin, Muted Bridges (2021, 3’22”)

Muted Bridges traces five refurbished bridges across Hong Kong Island, capturing them through shifting perspectives and scales. More than a simple study of infrastructure, the short film offers a meditative glimpse into the city’s evolving urban fabric.

Dan Li, Denoise (2022, 33’00”)

In Denoise, dreams and experiences of the arid world are used to bring together noise from different environments and mediums, presenting them in a denoised state with a detailed narration that captures their commonalities. If noise is broadly seen as useless and as an element that produces interference, then the definition and removal of noise become manifestations of power and capital, whether in dust control, satellite maps, sound or 3D graphic renderings.

ACCESS INFORMATION

This event takes place on the ground floor with step-free access in our multi-purpose programme space, with a fully accessible, all-gender bathroom.

Please feel free to inquire with info@asymmetryart.org if you would like to discuss any access needs. Please kindly be advised that requests should be made one week in advance of the event, and we will try our best to make accommodations subject to availability.