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M+, Hong Kong, © Kacey Wong
Kacey Wong 黃國才
Drift City (2000–2019) 游離都市（2000–2019）
2017
Drift City (2000–2019) is part of a series of works created by the Hong Kong–based artist Kacey Wong. In the nearly twenty-minute digital video, Wong appears in a variety of places around the world as an abstracted, anthropomorphised skyscraper. His simple costume is made of white cardstock patterned with a grid of black squares. A box around his legs forms the building’s base; a slightly narrower box, with holes for his arms, wraps his torso. The cylindrical tower framing his face comes to a point well above his head.
Wong studied architecture in the United States before beginning his art practice. The Drift City series recalls a specific architectural event: the 1931 Beaux-Arts Ball in New York City, when architects of famous towers, including the Chrysler Building, dressed as their structures. The locations Wong visits in this work are significant architectural sites or striking natural landscapes. He moves through them alone awkwardly—the costume’s shape makes the stairs of the Great Wall of China difficult to navigate, for example. The video is sometimes sped up, accentuating the strangeness of the images. With subtle humour, Drift City evokes empathy for the perpetually searching, out-of-place object Wong portrays.
Wong studied architecture in the United States before beginning his art practice. The Drift City series recalls a specific architectural event: the 1931 Beaux-Arts Ball in New York City, when architects of famous towers, including the Chrysler Building, dressed as their structures. The locations Wong visits in this work are significant architectural sites or striking natural landscapes. He moves through them alone awkwardly—the costume’s shape makes the stairs of the Great Wall of China difficult to navigate, for example. The video is sometimes sped up, accentuating the strangeness of the images. With subtle humour, Drift City evokes empathy for the perpetually searching, out-of-place object Wong portrays.
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