Many women have experienced indecent assaulted. The crime rates have been rising by years, supported by the Annual Reports of Hong Kong Police. There are 775 cases reported indecent assault and 54 cases reported rape, around 20% increase when comparing with the same`period in 2009. It cannot reflect the reality because most of the women did not report their cases. A research found that only 11% of victims reported their cases to the police (Ng 2005)*. Does it mean that people don’t care about these crimes? However, impacts on victims are negative and could be life-long in some cases. In the hope of increase public awareness and confront the misconceptions of the society, Phoebe Man uses art as a social force to respond to this phenomenon.
Rewriting History has 5 versions: writing, paper cutting, animation, installation and interactive installation. For the written version Phoebe rewrote stories of her own and other impressive stories told by some sexual assault survivors. It aims to organize thoughts, reflect the reality, and to have paradigm shift. Afterthen, when looking at the writings, Phoebe would like to show her feelings and thinking through cutting and sculpting these paper. In the work RH: “They walk the streets and I live a life sentence.” KC, a survivor., a woman holds her naked body in her arms, with her head buried in a lump of paper strips. The work shows once woman is threatened and being humiliated by sex, not only are they afraid of getting close with others, their wounded hearts are also sentenced to jail. The work expresses victims’trauma since some people think it is no big deal to touch and have sex with women without their consent. The animation, on the other hand, makes the paper cutting alive. Phoebe made it to put all the imaginative scenes together. There is a little girl fighting with a big hand in the animation. Big hand is a symbol of power. People sexually assaulted other people because of power. They need reassurance or they are assertive. For the interactive installation, when audience gets closer the installation, some hands on the screen will chase the audience’s shadow on the screen, only after the audience hit back those hands, they will turn to flowers. This work aims to encourage audience to confront the power actively.
Phoebe is now the Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. Her works are mostly self-exploration, challenging ideologies and institutions. Moreover, her works have been shown extensively in international exhibitions, with her feminine-related works being the most well known. Rewriting History was exhibited and screened in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan.
“Rewriting History – Installation by Phoebe Man” is part of Fotanian: Open Studios 2011. It will be held from 8th – 9th, 15th – 16th January, from 2pm to 7pm, in Fotan. During the show, there will guided tour at 4pm for public and student workshop available upon request, please refer to the contact below for further details.
Date : 8th – 9th , 15th – 16th January, 2011
Time : 2 – 7 pm
