Remote Viewing: Place and Time, Online lecture performance by Tom O’Dea

Tom O’Dea will discuss waning and remaining, a 2021 site sensitive and ephemeral work that engages with the remote, once abandoned but reviving Hakka village of Lai Chi Wo in far north New Territories, Hong Kong—the site of a multi-year rural community development and revitalization program. The neon artwork, fabricated by one of the few remaining traditional Hong Kong neon glass-benders, is powered by an existing solar panel farm irrigation system with synchronous intermittent live streaming over cellular network, connecting the remote rural location to the densely urban Kowloon City area and beyond. O’Dea will discuss the temporal nature of the work that engages with cycles of rural decline and renewal over time; the clearing, regeneration and re-clearing of farmland from jungle; the continued payment of rates by the village's diaspora with a view to eventual return from emigration; the rapid decline of vernacular neon signs as tangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong; and the decline of neon fabrication and glass-bending skills as intangible cultural heritage.