GOLDEN
Lessons
susan pui san lok, Untitled, 2006, installation with shimmer curtain
and lighting filter, Beaconsfield, London. Images (C)the artist 
susan pui san lok, Years, 2006, DVD, 22 mins alternating two-screen loop
Archive footage reproduced with permission from Central ITV. 
Alex Moore, Ballroom Dancing, 1939 (book cover).
Rephotography: Ferdinand CarabottBeaconsfield, London, 18 October – 10 November 2006 Wed – Fri 12-6pm
Golden (Lessons) forms part of an ongoing series of works exploring nostalgia, aspiration and diaspora, under the rubric Golden. Taking up the motifs of ballroom and song in the process of a four week exhibition and research residency at Beaconsfield, London, Lessons was punctuated and animated by a series of on- and off-site events and interventions.
Based in Beaconsfield’s Upper space, the artist played tracks from her father L.C Lok’s 1960s’ ballroom and Chinese record collections, attempted to teach herself ballroom from a handbook, and documented her residency in a blog. An installation in the Upper space provided the stage for a number of public ‘lessons’, which included improvised sessions in ‘ballroom’ led by dancers/choreographers Jenevieve Chang and Annie Pui Ling Lok in the role of pseudo-instructors, and rehearsals for Chorus (2006), a short score for voices commissioned by the artist from musician and composer Mat Davidson. These ‘lessons’ lead into the performance/interventions Mobile Ballroom and Mobile Chorus, seemingly impromptu and occasionally harmonious interruptions of various public sites, inspired both by the mobile clubbing phenomenon, and by the idea of the ‘spontaneous’ musical number, aiming to both demystify and reproduce their affects.
Lessons also featured existing works from the series, Golden, and a new audio work, Golden Hour (2006), broadcast on Resonance 104.4fm at the residency’s close (10 November 2006). Lessons will be documented in an e-book edited by Beaconsfield , to complement the forthcoming artist’s book, Golden (Notes).
EVENTS / SCHEDULE
Singing Lesson / Mobile Chorus
Encounter, Curiosity and Method: The Making of Practice
e-book
susan pui san lok, Mobile Ballroom, 2006 (event flyer).Acknowledgements
Lessons is a Beaconsfield commission, made possible with funding from the AHRC and Middlesex University, and the support of Resonance 104.4fm. Thanks also to L.C. Lok, Annie Pui Ling Lok, Mat Davidson, Ben Cummins, and Jenevieve Chang, for their generous contributions.
GOLDEN / VISTAS / SONGS / YEARS / NOTES / EVENTS / SPSL / CONTACT
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