Wars aren’t spectacular anymore is a series of artistic interventions in light of the recent university sieges in Hong Kong in 2019, which stirred up memories of the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. Now, wars unfold in a much more insidious and invisible way – oppression. Protestors are maced; Dissidents are silenced, and students are persecuted. The police crackdowns in Hong Kong, along with the global wave of mass protest in 2019, remind us that civilizations are fragile.

Continuing the aesthetic of delayed production I proposed in White Paper Manifesto, this project largely exists as blueprints. It is a ‘plan on the shelf’ waiting to but does not rush to be implemented. The project is envisioned through mockup images and 3D rendering, inviting other artists to participate and art institutions to materialize into ‘real’ interventions. The materials are open for download and non-commercial distribution. It provides an overarching ‘banner’ uniting artists to rally against oppression - of any kind - in the rise of global authoritarianism.

The project consists of a poem, a flag, posters, tickets, videos, and an installation plan. The installation consists of two parts. King1 Seng4 (2020) is a pop-up karaoke box. The title is the Cantonese pronunciation of the only karaoke song looping on the screen. The song, written by famed lyricist Wyman Wong, describes the delicate sentiments of a cosmopolitan after an emotional breakup. Wong poignantly portrayed the protagonist’s desolation by contrasting her loneliness with the literal imagery of a prosperous metropolitan city. The 90s music video combined the glorious cityscape of Hong Kong at its heyday with Wong’s poetic lyrics. Seen against the backdrop of the current protest, the video is given a new reading. It brings out a particular retrofuturistic melancholy felt among pan-democratic Hong Kongers.

King1 Seng4 sets the mood for the second part of the installation Wars aren’t spectacular anymore (2020), which features two video projections taken the whole wall of the space. On both sides of the pink neon sign is gameplay footage of first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and a promotional video of the VR game Liberate Hong Kong respectively. The former is famed for its realistic representation of war zones while the other is a simulation of the protests in Hong Kong. However, unlike Call of Duty, the players, playing as protestors, can never win the game. The game continues until the players are arrested or killed by the crowd dispersal ammunition shooting at them. Leading to the projections are dozens of CRT monitors scattered throughout the space. Playing on them are appropriated footages shot by protestors and citizen journalists that captured oppression and police brutality during the protest. A 3D neon sign of text taken from the poem of the same name appears sporadically in the footages, obscuring the scene as it turns violent. The full poem is printed as a risograph print, readily available on several pedestals set up in the entire installation.

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Sheung Yiu

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Perpetual harassment awaits

No suicide bombers frets
Nor nuclear winter threats
Police rods replace grenades
No beheading here, just re-educate

There ain’t a single historic moment
Perpetual harassment awaits

No mass graves, nor terrorist attacks
No gas chambers, nor concentration camps
Gunshots apportioned among millions
over a stretched timeline, a massacre extends

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Perpetual harassment awaits

Who will count the bodies,
when killing becomes routine?
Who can declare wounds,
and bruises masses bore?

No cruel murder scenes on screen
Perpetual harassment awaits

*

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Perpetual harassment awaits

A war so slow
Its click-rate low
Regime versus people
Civil war of an asymmetrical flow

An entire civilisation at risk
Perpetual harassment awaits

One side has guns, poison, and weapons
Other side wants justice, rights – universal, human
An egg versus a high wall
In waiting a true fall

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Perpetual harassment awaits

No peace talks or sanctions
Nor unprofitable interventions
No presidential speeches to be doled
Nor public outrage to behold

Bloodshed made invisible
Perpetual harassment awaits

Wars aren’t spectacular anymore
Perpetual harassment awaits

17.11.2019
Edited by Vidha Saumya
Prints designed by Else Lagerspetz

Sodat on vailla hohtoa

Sodat on vailla hohtoa
Jäljellä ehkä enää epätoivon kajoaMeitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Ei itsemurhapommeja ja niitä vöitä
Ei talvista uhkailua ydinaseilla
Pamput korvasivat kranaatit
Uudelleenkouluttaudutaan päivisin

Vailla historiallisia hetkiä 
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Ei joukkohautoja, ei pommi iskuja
en nähnyt kaasukammioita, en keskitysleirejä
Miljoonittain jaetut laukaukset
muodostavat aikajanassa verilöylyn verkkaisen

Sodat on vailla hohtoa
Ei meitä odota kuin ikuinen kiusa

Kuka laskee ruumiiden summan
kun taposta kehittyi rutiini?
Kuka todistaa haavat
ja mustelmat oikeiksi?

Valkokankailla ei näy julmia murhia
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

*

Sodissa ei ole hohtoa
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Sotamme hidas tahti
on itse napsautusten määrittämä
Kun ihmistä vastaan taistelee hallinto -
epäsymmetristä soljuntaa 

Koko sivilisaatiomme on vaarassa
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Toisilla on pyssyt, myrkyt ja tappokoneistot
Toiset tahtovat toivoa, ihmisille oikeuksia
Kuin kananmuna pudoten ylhäältä
odotamme todellista heräämistä

Sodissa ei ole hohtoa
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Ei rauhanneuvotteluja, ei tuomioita
Ei puuttumisia, ne ei tuo voittoa
En kuullut johtajien puheita, en mitään almuja
En todistanut julkista raivoa kadulla

Verta vuodatetaan salaa vieläkin
Meitä odottaa ikuinen kiusa

Sodissa ei enää ole hohtoa
meitä odottaa kiusa ja pelko ikuinen

Translated by Kastehelmi Kollmann

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