HENRY TSANG

Olympus (2006)
video

This is an interactive new media work that plays video clips based on information gathered over the Internet about the prominence of Torino versus Vancouver at any given time. The duration of each video sequence will be constantly changing.

Henry Tsang's video depicts one man's journey in two cities that will host the current and upcoming Winter Olympic Games: Torino, Italy and Vancouver, Canada. He visits the competition sites in his Smart Car, driving to each stadium in the urban centres, then onto the highway up to the mountains where the alpine events will take place. He moves through and in between these two geographically disparate places, connected primarily through their association with the Olympic machine with a fluidity and awkwardness that is at times seamless, at other times jarring and forced. The video jumps between the different sites but the actor and his vehicle remain constant, going through the same motions in each locale, relentless in their ascent, in their goal to conquer the mountain before them. A computer program will function as a real-time editing device, switching between Torino and Vancouver so that with each subsequent sequence or scene, the movement between the two spaces will be similar but always different.

BIOGRAPHY:

Henry Tsang's installations incorporate video, photography, language and sculptural elements and have been exhibited internationally. His work explores the relationship between the public, community and self in the new global order. He has also worked on public art projects, is an occasional independent curator, and is an Assistant Professor at the Emily Carr Institute for Art, Design & Media in Vancouver, Canada.