Simulated alternative realities can take many different forms. They can be found everywhere – in the elaborate utopias and dystopias created in books, magazines and films, in our belief or denial in the existence of an afterlife, in our very dreams and aspirations. We createalternative realities for ourselves each time we imagine the things that might have been, the half-remembered past, events that never happened but we believe to be true. Simulated alternate realities make strange and unfamiliar the things that we thought we knew. Dreamworlds, hopes and fantasies, these alternate realities are created as survival strategies for our daily lives.

The simulated alternative realities depicted within this exhibition exploit the problematic dialectic inherent in photography, the fallacy of photographic truth. By its very nature, a photograph will always be someone else’s version of the truth, the word “composition” an abbreviation for the complex process of subjective selection and elimination integral even to so-called “documentary photography”. Whilst we cannot authenticate reality through the photograph, at the core of each simulation is an element of the real, the point from which subjectivity and imagination combine to create a distillation of reality or a declaration of intent. Within these simulated alternate realities, anything is possible.

Curator: Davina Lee

Artists:
David Boyce (Hong Kong/New Zealand)
Nick Cheuk (Hong Kong)
Graeme Cooper (Great Britain)
Evangelo Costadimas & Syren
Johnstone (Hong Kong/Canada/Australia)
Peter Fraser (Great Britain)
Anthony Lam (Great Britain)
Stephen Lam( Hong Kong/United States)
Noel Manalili (France)
Riddick Douglas Ning (Hong Kong)
Hiram To (Hong Kong/Australia)
Kurt Tong (Great Britain)
Bruce Yonemoto (United States)

Opening reception Friday 8 October 2010, 7pm

About DIORAMA PROJECTS
DIORAMA PROJECTS was established in Hong Kong in 2008 by Davina Lee as the exhibition and events division of Words For Pictures Limited. The objective of DIORAMA PROJECTS is to identify, develop and realize unique projects that will stimulate artistic and cultural exchange and collaboration. DIORAMA PROJECTS seeks to provide physical and virtual spaces for groundbreaking work from new and established artists. In addition to the ongoing series of monthly screenings DIORAMA PROJECTIONS, previous projects include the exhibitions Chroniques Hongkongaises, part of Festival Voies Off, Arles, July, 2010, Proxemics, Hong Kong, October 2009, The Mother of All Journeys, Hong Kong, September 2009 and Distance Decay, Festival Voies Off, Arles, 2009. At the core of each project is the desire to engage audiences at all levels, from passive observation to active critical debate.
www.dioramaprojects.org