Ho Rui An - Student Bodies
Screening & Conversation
November 6, 4pm
Student Bodies, 2020, 24:35 min
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First presented in 2019, Student Bodies is a work of pedagogical horror that approaches the fraught history of capitalist modernity and radical culture in East and Southeast Asia through the figure of the student body. Beginning with the students of Satsuma and Chōshū from Bakumatsu-era Japan, who in the 1860s were the first students from the country to study in the West, the work considers the student body as both collective and singular, both metaphor and flesh, standing in for the body politic of the region across the successive periods of “miraculous” economic development, crisis, and recovery through to the present day.
In Ho’s work, the “star capitalist pupil” of the United States—as political scientist Chalmers Johnson described Japan in the post-World War II period—becomes, later on in the film, the dead student protester on the streets, with each reincarnation breaking established analytical frameworks based on class, culture, and the nation-state. In the work, these monstrous transformations undergone by the student body throughout history are given voice by unseen “ghosts” whose utterances are only comprehensible through reading the subtitles. This is combined with contemporary footage and archival material that together draw out the complex interplay of historical forces that has produced the student as both the embodiment of the education system and its contradiction.
Ho Rui An is an artist, writer, and researcher who works at the intersections of contemporary art, cinema, performance and theory. Having established himself with a distinctive performance lecture style practice, he navigates between anecdotal storytelling, visual analysis, and critical theory. Besides teaching professionally, Rui An sees his practice as a form of public pedagogy and often conducts talks and workshops to reach out to the broader community. His works have been presented at many prominent biennales and festivals worldwide, including the Bangkok Art Biennale (2020) and Gwangju Biennale (2018), gaining attention for his discursively compelling performances, films, and installations.
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