Samson Young

Unfinished Spaces

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Samson Young, Unfinished Spaces, 2021, Pen and pencil on paper, 10 x 15 cm each (series of 10). Image courtesy of Daniela Baptista. Art Jameel Collection

Artwork Details

Artist

Samson Young

Title

Unfinished Spaces

Date

2021

Medium

Pen and pencil on paper

Dimensions

10 x 15 cm each (series of 10)

Credit Line

Art Jameel Collection

Work Description

Unfinished Spaces is a series of small drawings that imagine different and more open spaces for music, away from conventional concert venues. 

  1. Spaces where musical meaning is less settled, where one may open the musical black box anew
  2. Spaces where it is easier for musical times (other than linear ones) to be trusted
  3. Spaces where sounds more readily ricochet off walls, the ground, objects, and other listening bodies; where these moments of ricochet are acknowledged, and given shape to
  4. Spaces where the listening body is not entirely cradled in comfort, where it is free to feel tiredness, the aching feet, the restless arms, and the fatigued mind
  5. Spaces where sounds more readily leak out of bodies-nearby
  6. Spaces where listening bodies are positioned at the same altitude as the sounding bodies, and the knowledge and technologies that amplify them
  7. Spaces where, between the music and the public, is only but a permeable threshold
  8. Spaces where sounds are encouraged to linger, to let ring out
  9. Spaces where music mixes more readily with the gifts of nature
  10. Spaces where I, as both a listening and a sounding body, sometimes need to get out of the way

Artist Biography

Multidisciplinary artist Samson Young (b. 1979, Hong Kong; lives and works in Hong Kong) works in sound, performance, video and installation. He graduated with a PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University in 2013. In 2017, he represented Hong Kong at the 57th Venice Biennale. Other solo projects have been presented at the de Appel, Amsterdam; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Smart Museum of Art, Chicago; Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester; M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Ryosoku-in Temple, within the Kenninji Temple, Kyoto; and Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne; among others. Young’s work has been featured in group exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Performa 19 Biennial, New York; the 21st Biennale of Sydney; the 12th Shanghai Biennale; National Museum of Art, Osaka; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA), Seoul; Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria; and documenta 14: documenta radio; among others. In 2020, he was awarded the inaugural Sigg Prize. His works are in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Kadist, San Francisco.

Useful Links

Artist’s Rooms: Samson Young