Pastiche, a video triptych with six-channel audio, is partly based on excerpts from the classic of Kun opera, ‘The Peony Pavilion'. The excerpts are mainly taken from three scenes, namely ‘A Walk in the Garden', ‘The Interrupted Dream' and ‘Pursuing the Dream'. The choreographed movements of the performers convey changing emotional states such as melancholy, delight or disappointment. In her work, the artist separates visual elements from both the melodies (music) and the lyrics (language and vocal expression), and combines them with an additional element, the story of Bauhinia x blakeana, a sterile hybrid plant species native to Hong Kong.

The text used in Pastiche is made up of three stanzas, each consisting of phrases of four or more characters in Chinese. These phrases are taken from different sources including, on the one hand, ‘Declaring Ambition', the second scene of the original play of ‘The Peony Pavilion', as well as three scenes from later, adapted versions of the play, namely ‘A Walk in the Garden', ‘The Interrupted Dream' and ‘Pursuing the Dream'. Other sources include Yu Kwang-chung's poem ‘The Bauhinia', the novel ‘Androgyny' by Dung Kai-cheung. Using poeticised language and word combinations, Pastiche attempts to recreate the air of The text used in Pastiche is made up of three stanzas, each consisting of phrases of four or more characters in Chinese. These phrases are taken from different sources including, on the one hand, ‘Declaring Ambition', the second scene of the original play of ‘The Peony Pavilion', as well as three scenes from later, adapted versions of the play, namely ‘A Walk in the Garden‘, ‘The Interrupted Dream' and ‘Pursuing the Dream'. Other sources include Yu Kwang-chung's poem ‘The Bauhinia', the novel ‘Androgyny' by Dung Kai-cheung. Using poeticised language and word combinations, Pastiche attempts to recreate the air of perplexity.

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-initiated 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.

Date: 28.10.2019 — 19.1.2020