Join us with Queer East, 'Off the Grid, On the Page: Archiving Hong Kong’s Pre-Internet Queer History'

esea contemporary co-presents with Queer East, Off the Grid, On the Page: Archiving Hong Kong’s Pre-Internet Queer History, an event bringing together moving-image works by Hong Kong artist Anson Mak with a talk drawing on her research as project consultant for the archive Hong Kong LGBTQ+ Printed Matter in the Pre-Internet Era.

The works in this programme (https://www.eseacontemporary.org/events/queer-east-screening-off-the-grid-on-the-page) sit within a broader history of queer moving-image practice in Hong Kong, at a time when sexual diversity remained highly taboo and many LGBTQ+ lives, desires and communities were largely absent from mainstream representation. Across the screening and talk, the programme considers how queer histories can be recovered, revisited and understood through cultural materials that might otherwise remain overlooked.

Mak will introduce materials from the archive, including those documenting the decriminalisation of homosexual sex under British colonial law in Hong Kong — a turning point that helped galvanise LGBTQ+ activism in the early 1990s. She will also explore the intersections of feminist and queer movements, the role of independent zines, and the creative and resourceful ways people navigated dating and connection before the arrival of the internet and dating apps.

Bringing these materials into conversation with Mak’s moving-image works, the programme traces strands of LGBTQ+ history in Hong Kong and considers the archive as both a record of the past and a means of understanding how queer histories are preserved, interpreted and carried forward.

The talk is followed by a screening of Same Yet Different (1991) and Two or Three Things I Know About Them (1992). Bringing Mak’s moving-image works into dialogue with the archival materials, the programme considers how queer histories can be recovered through overlooked cultural traces, and how archives and moving images might serve not only as records of the past, but as ways of interpreting and carrying these histories forward.

Advance booking is required for this event.

Screening Programme:

Same Yet Different

Hong Kong | 1996 | 20 min

Two Or Three Things I Know About Them

Hong Kong | 1992 | 28 min

About Anson Mak (https://www.eseacontemporary.org/events/queer-east-screening-off-the-grid-on-the-page#)

Dr Anson Hoi Shan Mak is a filmmaker and artist from Hong Kong whose research-driven practice spans film and video, phonography and sound art, sound design, web-based projects, and photography on woodwork.

Her work has been presented at international film festivals including the Hong Kong International Film Festival, Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Vancouver International Film Festival and Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival. Her artworks have also been exhibited at museums and galleries including M+, Videotage, Taipei MOCA, Times Art Center Berlin, FACT Liverpool, Whitechapel Gallery London, Rockbund Art Museum Shanghai, CornerHouse Manchester and Crossing Art New York.

About Queer East (https://www.eseacontemporary.org/events/queer-east-screening-off-the-grid-on-the-page#)

Queer East is a cross-disciplinary arts organisation dedicated to boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ cinema, performance, visual arts, literature, and moving-image work from East and Southeast Asia, its diaspora communities, and beyond.

Image credits:

1.Anson Mak, 'Two Or Three Things I Know About Them', film still. Courtesy of the artist.

2.Anson Mak, 'Two Or Three Things I Know About Them', film still.

3-5.Anson Mak, 'Offline Memories'.

Description supplied by the event organiser.