Artist’s Choice: Law Yuk Mui Screening of Excerpts from The Assassin and Artist’s Talk

Found footage and documentary images are prominent components in Hong Kong artist Law Yuk Mui’s artistic practice; her works often elicit subtle sensations and observations from historical and archival material. Such a stylistic vein can certainly be traced in her recent works Pastiche, From Whence the Waves Came and Victoria East. For Law, every new work is a venture into the uncharted ground of the mixture of sound and image, demonstrating her rigorous thinking about “editing” and “rhythm”.

The Assassin by Hou Hsiao-hsien, with the score composed by Lim Giong, is one of the major references for Law when she was creating Pastiche. This special online edition of Artist’s Choice will screen excerpts from The Assassin, selected by Law herself, and present an artist’s talk with Law discussing the editing and rhythm in her works.

The artist’s talk will be in Cantonese with closed captioning in English, hosted by David Chan, the assistant curator (Public Programme and Education) of Tai Kwun.

 Law Yuk Mui

Law Yuk-mui graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA). She is the co-founder of the artist-run organisation Rooftop Institute.

Using image, sound and installation as her mediums of preference, and adopting the methodology of field study and collecting, she often intervenes in the mundane space and daily life of the city and catches the physical traces of history, psychological pathways of human, the marks of time and the political power in relation to geographic space. Law often digs beyond the surface, through which she would recover fragments of narratives and micro histories. She is also sensitive to remnants in the art making process and finds imaginative ways to re-use and reactivate these things.

Her works have been extensively exhibited in Asia, including: Michikusa: Walks with the Unknown, Art Tower Mito, Japan (2020); Jogja Biennale (2019); From Whence the Waves Came at Para Site (2018); Art Basel Hong Kong (2018); Future Life Handbook at the Redtory Museum of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou (2017–2018); Victoria East: FUSE Artist Residency at Videotage, Hong Kong (2017); Talkover/Handover 2.0, at 1a space, Hong Kong (2017); and the Busan International Short Film Festival, South Korea (2017).

Law Yuk-mui received the Award for Young Artist (media art category) of Hong Kong Arts Development Awards and the Excellence Award (Media Art Category) of the 23rd ifva Awards in 2018.