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M+, Hong Kong, © courtesy of Angela Su
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Mediatheque
Angela Su 徐世琪
The Assembly Line 裝配線
2013
The Assembly Line is a 2013 digital video by the Hong Kong–based artist Angela Su that addresses the relationship between humans and technology. The work recalls a slideshow, with grainy black-and-white images accompanied by the clicking sounds of an invisible projector. The sequence begins with archival photographs of factories, meat-packing operations, and workers on the assembly line. These familiar, occasionally disturbing visuals are gradually interspersed with images of prosthetic limbs, including photographs of workers using prosthetics and documentation of the limbs’ production. The slideshow pauses on text cards that resemble silent film intertitles—in a tone that shifts from explanatory to poetic, the texts draw connections between industrial processes, the human body, and daily life. The slides eventually start to skip, revealing flashes of what might be mutilated body parts, a subconscious corollary to the animal carcasses and prosthetics seen throughout the sequence.
Su has long been fascinated with human anatomy, initially training as a biochemist before receiving her second degree in visual arts. Her dark and sometimes macabre work explores embodied spectatorship, and associations between vision, pleasure, and pain.
Su has long been fascinated with human anatomy, initially training as a biochemist before receiving her second degree in visual arts. Her dark and sometimes macabre work explores embodied spectatorship, and associations between vision, pleasure, and pain.
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