Wow – two weeks with Simon Lui, March 1- 12 2021! Simon brought much-welcomed springtime to the Electronic Media program with his energy, kindness and art-intensity. Simon Lui was at the IEA for two weeks, splitting his time preparing for his upcoming three-channel installation Devil’s Peak at the SHED NYC and generating content for the follow-up to his acclaimed film E-Ticket. Simon came to the IEA with a rich practice in analog film-making which he nimbly translated into electronic media. Simon quickly developed a compelling dialog with the Snodgrass Sandin IP, sending his original footage, film transfers into the system, getting stellar results. Not only did Simon experiment and discover analog video processing he also took to our Doepfer Eurorack audio synthesizer with equal relish generating great outcomes.

On the first day tour, Simon was introduced to Wood Shop technician Tim McKee. Tim joked that he never actually spends time with IEA AIRs, not a joke this time as Tim facilitated building a mock-up of the three projection screens for Devil’s Peak. The IEA is very grateful to Tim for his help, expertise and support. With the screens built they were installed in an art history classroom across from the IEA, thanks to James Hansen & Art History for use of the space. Next Rebekkah Palov set up a three-channel sync-test system for the WIP. Simon put up test footage with great effect showing tremendous promise and potential for this WIP.

To end the week Simon generously screened a special seven-channel version of E-Ticket on the TSI gallery. This installation was excitingly informative, with Simon assessing the spatially expanded latent potential in E-Ticket and considering developing it for future projects.

Simon Liu is from Hong Kong and now lives in Brooklyn. Liu’s films and 16mm projection performances have shown at festivals and institutions globally including the New York, Toronto, Rotterdam, Sundance, London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong International Film Festivals, M+ Museum, Tai Kwun Contemporary, SFMoMA, New Directors/New Films at MoMA & Lincoln Center, Walker Art Center, Yale, IMAGES, TIDF, EMAF, EXiS, IMAGE FORUM, and “Dreamlands: Expanded” with the Whitney & Microscope Gallery. Liu is a 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a member of Negativeland Lab, and a teacher at the Cooper Union School of Art.