ARTIST STATEMENT

Dennis Ngan is an artist and spectator. He was born in Hong Kong and is currently based in London. He is interested in how time, space and movement is represented as still and moving images, and how they are presented, concealed and consumed on the cyberspace. Through making and curating images, he investigates how these interactions can be reimagined to tell stories behind our voyeuristic and exhibitionistic drives.

 

He is drawn to the idea of realism, which is the accurate and detailed depiction of contemporary life, by using the tools of its times. Highlighted by the prevalence of screens, surveillance and spectacle, he believes that the internet is the defining medium to examine life in the bad new days, with its “materiality” rooted in the interfaces of different cyber platforms. By using them in unexpected ways, he explores the tension between stillness and motions in internet images. This enquiry is further expanded in his investigation of the history of photography and cinema, as he is captivated by the medium’s indexicality and authority to simulate and represent reality.

 

His recent installation works unveil the nuances in these qualities. By disrupting the normal use of devices that capture and display images, the works generate a dialogue between oppositions: the static and the moving, the mundane and the spectacular, the then and the now.