Born in Hong Kong in 1980, Kingsley Ng is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses primarily on conceptual, site-specific, and community-oriented projects. Ng creates connections between the artwork and its context through various media and formats, including interactive installations, public workshops, sound, spatial arrangements, and experiential designs. He believes that art helps us to mediate our environment, whether as viewer or as participator.
According to Kingsley Ng, art provides a language for bringing social issues to life and reflecting on ideas and impressions that may be of interest to a wider audience.
Artist’s career
Kingsley Ng completed postgraduate studies at Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts in France, under the tutelage of artists such as Alain Fleischer, Andrea Cera, Atau Tanaka, and Gary Hill, graduating with honors. He continued his studies with a master’s degree in sustainable design at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and a bachelor’s degree in digital arts at Ryerson University in Canada.
Ng’s works have been featured in various international exhibitions and venues. These include the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, the Guangzhou Triennial in China, the Land Art Biennale in Mongolia, the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan, the European Pavilion in Lille at the Shanghai World Expo, the InterAccess Electronic Arts Centre in Canada, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and Art Basel Hong Kong.
He has also received numerous grants and awards, including the 2014 Best Media Artist Award from the Arts Development Council, the 2013 Asian Cultural Council Grant, the 2009 Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award, the 2008 Hong Kong Young Design Talent Award, the Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards Gold Medal in 2007, the Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant for Media Artists in 2006, and the InterAccess Visual Arts Award in 2003. He was also an artist-in-residence at the Cité internationale des arts in Paris in 2010. He is currently an associate professor at the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Passage
2023//Film
Abstract patterns, produced by the projection of pixelated lights, evoke clouds drifting among memories of loss and lingering absence, against a metaphorical sky glowing red as if at dusk.
When the seats in the cinema are occupied once again, Passage focuses on the loss of their former emptiness, on what may remain in a void. Echoing Herz Frank’s short film Ten Minutes Older, the action proposes to reverse the classic arrangement between screen and audience. Instead of occupying the auditorium, the audience takes their seats on stage and turns their gaze towards the empty seats.
The void is a testament to absence.
And in every absence, there is a story of loss.
What remains in the persistence of emptiness?
Twenty Five Minutes Older
2018//Film, mobile camera obscura
For Twenty-Five Minutes Older, Kingsley Ng’s transformed two of the territory’s iconic trams into moving camera obscuras, offering passengers a chance to see the city in reverse. Like travelers in time, passengers on board saw moving images of Hong Kong’s city life, accompanied by spoken extracts from Liu Yichang’s popular novella ‘Tête-bêche’.
This project is commissioned by Art Basel and supported by MGM Resorts Art & Culture.
Partners and residency
Micromégas, a cross-residency initiative promoting exchanges between France and Hong Kong in the field of media arts, was launched in 2021 by Videotage and the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and Macao. The residency is co-organized by Cneai, K11 Art Foundation, Videotage, and HKADC, with support from Cinéma du réel, Lafayette Anticipations, and Hong Kong Baptist University – Institute of Creative Arts.