The Shape of Light:
A Live Performance by Ellen Pau
The Shape of Light:
A Live Performance by Ellen Pau
M+ invites you to a live performance by Hong Kong’s pioneering moving image artist Ellen Pau. Complementing her work, The Shape of Light, on show on the M+ Facade from 20 May, this performance harnesses sound and light as material and energy, offering the city a space of healing. In this production, Pau returns to her experimental theatre roots, where her passion for moving image was first ignited.
For more than three decades, Pau has sought to reveal the connections between humanity and our environment. Through a deft interplay of sound and visuals, Pau’s video works sharpen our perceptions of different frequencies, including the underlying energy of human relations, the subtle rhythms of the city, and echoes of its historical past.
This performance, co-presented by M+ and Art Basel, is produced in collaboration with sound artist Shane Aspegren, lighting designer Amy Chan, dramaturge Elysa Wendi, and producer and live-coder Quinn Wong.
The Shape of Light is recommended for participants aged twelve or above. Register for free to see this performance live in The Forum at M+. It will also be livestreamed at the Grand Stair and online via the M+ YouTube channel.
About the Artist
Ellen Pau (b. 1961, Hong Kong) aims to raise our awareness of our physical presence and inspire contemplation of what it means to be, to exist, here and now, and beyond that, the space each of us occupies. Pau became one of the earliest pioneering video artists in Hong Kong. Beyond artistic creation, she has also been a leader in the promotion, curation, and education of art and culture in Hong Kong, through the founding of several important initiatives, including the city’s oldest video artist collective and archive for media art, Videotage (1986).
Portrait of artist Ellen Pau by Ng Tze Kwan
Pau also founded Microwave International New Media Arts Festival in 1996. Her works have been exhibited locally and worldwide in film festivals and art exhibitions. In 2001, Recycling Cinema, one of her most significant video installations, was presented at the Hong Kong Pavilion in the 49th Venice Biennale.
Image at top: Ellen Pau, The Shape of Light (still), 2022. Co-commissioned by M+, Hong Kong and Art Basel