The Days before Silent Spring
With her multi-channel video installation “The Days before Silent Spring” artist Lai Lai Natalie Lo allows us to learn about a diverse group of activists and farmers working together under the name “Sangwoodgoon”, practicing farming as a way of artistic expression, and living a deeper sense of personal relationship with the land they are working with. In their work the artists-farmers negotiate a new balance between humans and nature respecting the dignity of both. The work represents an approach relevant not only as a contribution to the topic of this year’s Ars Electronica Festival edition, but also stand in the core of interest of both Ars Electronica and the Austrian Foreign Culture policy.
Jury Statement
The idea of an impending “silent spring” comes from late marine biologist Rachel Carson’s warning penned in the 1960s of a forthcoming crisis of species diversity. In her eponymous book, Carson anticipated a gradual erasure of life-forms and sounds caused by pollution from pesticides. Today, decades of environmental deterioration and global conflicts have indeed brought us to an appalling present. In this unprecedented chaos we still hear talk of vanishing diversities, lost autonomy, and the danger of silencing. Farmland may seem old and feeble, and the bacteria, species, and communities it nourishes may also feel trivial, but in precarious times their symphony could sound the beginning of a new era.
Lo’s work has expanded beyond documenting crops, flora, and fauna to focus on her fellow farmers. Their divergent demands, hopes, experiences, and struggles reflect the arduous nature of negotiations, while also nourishing the collective as a whole.
Photo: Kwan Sheung Chi
Photo: Kwan Sheung Chi
Credits
Project Team
Cinematographer: Lo Lai Lai Natalie, Wong Yik Fung / Editing: Lo Lai Lai Natalie / Calligraphy: Tsang Wai Yee / Music: Wong Hing Yan / Sound Design: Fiona Lee Wing Shan / Subtitles Editor: Nin Chan, Yentl Tong / Subtitles: Rene Ng / Research Assistant: Mark Li Man Chung, Rita Wong Yin Ping, Wong Yik Fung / Writer, Editor: Quchang / Project Manager: Zoie Yung / Lead Technician: Lonely Lau / Sound Technician: Fiona Lee Wing Shan / Designer: Jian Yang / Translation: Alvin Li, Jason Chen
Acknowledgements
WYNG Foundation, Para Site Artspace, A Rapture Workshop, Choi Yuen Village
Sangwoodgoon
WMA Hong Kong, WYNG Foundation Hong Kong
The presentation of the work is funded by State of the ART(ist), a collaboration between the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ars Electronica.
Lai Lai Natalie Lo
Lo Lai Lai Natalie was born in Hong Kong. Lai Lai is a former travel journalist. She is interested in food, farming, fermentation, surveillance, and meditation. She is a learner at the collective organic farm Sangwoodgoon (Hong Kong), where she also explores a practice that seeks alternatives and autonomy as an artist and Hong-Konger. Her artworks are part of collector Dr. Uli Sigg’s private collection and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
