Samantha Culp » art

Ghost Metropolis (2008)

shc — Thu, 01 May 2008 07:44:24 +0000

video/installation

A video diptych of texts created in collaboration with an East African asylum-seeker in Hong Kong, one “fiction,” one “non-fiction,” presented together to emphasize the blurring of reality and dreams to Hong Kong’s hidden refugee community. Exhibited with snapshots of the writer’s illegal home in Hong Kong.

First exhibited in “CHiE! – Culture Sieges Politics” at Osage Gallery, HK (March 15-April 27, 2008). Curators: Jessie Chang and Jaspar Lau Kin Wah.
More information here.
Catalogue information here.

Hot and Cold (2008)

shc — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:34:22 +0000

performance/installation

The performer adds clothing and heating elements until she is hot (accompanied by desert animal documentary video), then removes all until she is cold (accompanied by arctic animal documentary video). Continue to cycle for set length of time.

Fo Tan Open Studios 2008, Embassy Projects Studio, Hong Kong, January 22, 2008

Altamont (2007)

shc — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:59:09 +0000

drawing

Exhibited at the first edition of “Let’s Bolt,” curated by Metro Color Collision with Lumi Tan
August 2007, Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, New York

More information here.

The Gum Bar

shc — Sat, 12 May 2007 15:09:51 +0000

(performance 2007)

at Hong Kong art events, designed to explore different concepts of service, consumption, and exchange. In “Gum Bar” (Noufaux Riche festival, 2007), the artist sold specialty gum cocktails in the context of a bar, and then collected the chewed remains from her customers in a bucket…

The Girl with the Yes Tape

shc — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:09:39 +0000

Performance & Installation (VHS copy of “Yessongs”, television, fabricated vintage stickers, headphones, candles, shag rug, pillows, photograph, text)
“Pop I.D.” curated by Andrew Guthrie, Kapok, Hong Kong, April-May 2007

The re-enactment of a teenage memory, and awkward insertion of a highly-personal bubble into social space. This piece seeks to explore the sacred rituals of fandom, the nature of performance in everyday life, alone and in public, and also the boundary between audience and participant.

Press:

Installation Text (download PDF):
The Girl with the Yes Tape

One night in high school, I went to a party at my friend’s house. The party was typical in many ways—kids hanging out, raiding the parents’ liquor cabinet, smoking cigarettes in the backyard. But at some point in the evening, an unfamiliar girl came into the living room where many of us were lounging. My friend A and I were laughing about another friend who was making out with some guy upstairs, so at first we didn’t really notice her.

This girl, dressed in her vintage-70’s finest, strutted into the room purposefully. She sat down in front of the TV, rummaged through her large leather-fringed bag, pulled out a VHS tape, and pushed it into the VCR. The opening credits of the VHS began and she pushed herself up even closer to the TV. The tape finally blared into shaky-color brilliance: a rock band, a concert movie.

A few of us in the room got curious– what exactly were we watching? When asked, she handed the tape cover back to somebody. YES: Yessongs. She sat there and watched intently, drinking out of a cup, occasionally rocking out. At one point I left to talk to somebody, then returned. She was still there. She sat and watched the whole thing. Then, as the tape wound down, she put it back in the case, back in her bag, and left.

I never found out who she was, or why she had brought the tape. All I know is that I hope she’s still out there, trucking Yessongs around from party to high school party. Pushing herself up close to the TV to watch the strobe lights gleam off some sequins and a six-string bass. Sipping whiskey from a plastic cup. Occasionally rocking out. And then disappearing into the endless night. The girl with the Yes tape.

- Samantha Culp
April 2007

Sleepover Psychedelia

shc — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:32:35 +0000

exhibition/installation

(drawing by Brent Wadden)

SLEEPOVER PSYCHEDELIA
Curated by Samantha Culp and Adrian Wong
Installation by Adrian Wong
Artists: Brian Chippendale, Thomas Galloway, Matt Lock, Devon Varmega, Brent Wadden

April 1- May 5, 2006
Opening Saturday April 1, 7pm
Kapok Gallery Space, 9 Dragon Road, Tin Hau, Hong Kong
www.ka-pok.com

Not so long ago, a new aesthetic began bubbling up through the bedrooms and basements of suburban America. In hand-made fanzines, indie album covers and personal blogs, the same symbols and set of concerns kept appearing– unicorns and space-ships, pyramids and laser-beams, neon colors and graphing paper. Influenced equally by childhood fantasy and DIY ethics, 80’s pop-culture detritus and 60’s mind-expansion, this visual vernacular seems to express something crucial about the sub-conscious hopes and anxieties of young America today– and it also happens to look really, really cool.

This genre has yet to be named, but for our purposes, we’ll call it Sleepover Psychedelia.

Press: Shift.jp