{"id":547510,"date":"2026-07-13T14:09:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:09:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547510\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:09:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:09:15","slug":"review-hong-kong-artist-ellen-pau-looks-at-political-promises-and-cynicism-in-new-york-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/547510\/","title":{"rendered":"Review | Hong Kong artist Ellen Pau looks at political promises and cynicism in New York show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Yorkers used to their city\u2019s relentless noise and movement will find a familiar urban pace and intensity reflected in the works of Hong Kong video artist <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/magazines\/post-magazine\/long-reads\/article\/3111945\/hong-kong-filmmaker-ellen-pau-embracing-her?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ellen Pau<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At the video pioneer\u2019s first North American survey, now on view at New York\u2019s SculptureCenter, her poignant exploration of unfulfilled pledges also has resonance amid mounting cynicism about politics in the US and beyond.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cShe Moves\u201d, curated by Freya Chou, features 15 major works dating from 1988 to the present, and charts how Pau documents everyday urban life and Hong Kong\u2019s shifting political and cultural landscape through an ambiguous yet poetic lens.<\/p>\n<p>The 65-year-old artist\u2019s stateside debut \u2013 accompanied by the screening of major works and a talk at the Museum of Modern Art in May \u2013 is long overdue. Born in British Hong Kong in 1961, Pau has been a tireless champion of the city\u2019s experimental video art scene for decades, and continues to do so long after <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/politics\/article\/3177298\/july-1-1997-handover-hong-kongs-return-china-after-british?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the 1997 handover to China<\/a>.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Hong Kong artist Ellen Pau (right) and curator Freya Chou during their talk about Pau\u2019s practice at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on May 18, 2026. Photo: courtesy of Ellen Pau\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d03d78be-4869-43a7-9a32-1ffd50e20427_150d1b7a.jpg\" title=\"Hong Kong artist Ellen Pau (right) and curator Freya Chou during their talk about Pau\u2019s practice at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on May 18, 2026. Photo: courtesy of Ellen Pau\"\/>Hong Kong artist Ellen Pau (right) and curator Freya Chou during their talk about Pau\u2019s practice at the Museum of Modern Art in New York on May 18, 2026. Photo: courtesy of Ellen Pau<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A largely self-taught artist who produced her first Super 8 film in 1984, she co-founded Videotage, a pioneering media art collective, in 1986, and later established the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival in 1996. Alongside her prolific art career, she worked as a radiographer at Queen Mary Hospital for nearly 40 years. This background in medical imaging fundamentally shaped her sensitivity towards capturing, manipulating and interpreting electronic images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers used to their city\u2019s relentless noise and movement will find a familiar urban pace and intensity&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547511,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[232061,232056,114,232055,240,61,60,157795,232063,4320,232059,232062,232054,232060,80,90,232057,232058],"class_list":["post-547510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-barbara-hammer","tag-british-hong-kong","tag-china","tag-ellen-pau","tag-hong-kong","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-long-island-city","tag-microwave-international-new-media-arts-festival","tag-new-york","tag-new-yorkers","tag-queen-mary-hospital","tag-sculpturecenter","tag-song-of-the-goddess","tag-technology","tag-us","tag-videotage","tag-yam-kim-fai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}