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M+, Hong Kong, © Noritoshi Hirakawa
Hirakawa Noritoshi 平川典俊
The Light of Sheung Wan 上環之光
2006
The Light of Sheung Wan is a 2006 digital video by the Japanese artist Hirakawa Noritoshi, who has lived in New York City since 1993. The work depicts a casual, fleeting encounter between three performers in a Hong Kong alley.
The video opens with a man carrying a violin case up a public flight of stairs. At the top, he sits on the tile steps of a covered doorway; he wipes sweat from his neck, checks change in his pocket, takes out the violin, and plays. A woman passing by stops. She walks to face him, and they make extended eye contact. She starts to sway. As the melody—Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’—picks up, she dances. A man walking by joins them, using a water jug from an adjacent pile of rubbish as a drum. After several minutes, she stops, and all three leave.
Before working as an artist, Hirakawa studied applied sociology, and human behaviour is a central subject of his practice. His photographs and performances frequently involve sexual or otherwise transgressive activity. The Light of Sheung Wan presents a staged scene that is both conceptual and natural; the music seems to unlock unexpected interaction, even intimacy, among strangers on a street.
The video opens with a man carrying a violin case up a public flight of stairs. At the top, he sits on the tile steps of a covered doorway; he wipes sweat from his neck, checks change in his pocket, takes out the violin, and plays. A woman passing by stops. She walks to face him, and they make extended eye contact. She starts to sway. As the melody—Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’—picks up, she dances. A man walking by joins them, using a water jug from an adjacent pile of rubbish as a drum. After several minutes, she stops, and all three leave.
Before working as an artist, Hirakawa studied applied sociology, and human behaviour is a central subject of his practice. His photographs and performances frequently involve sexual or otherwise transgressive activity. The Light of Sheung Wan presents a staged scene that is both conceptual and natural; the music seems to unlock unexpected interaction, even intimacy, among strangers on a street.
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