Strangers on Tong Chong Street

Description of the work

Strangers on Tong Chong Street by Tom Pearson and Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects explores what it means for a group of outsiders to descend upon a site and gradually affix themselves to its geography. Charting a course from an ostentatious arrival, through a cautious navigation of unknown territory, and finally to a state of comfortable activity, the work is often biographical of the process and of the individuals while examining notions of strangeness. The architecture of Tong Chong Street is familiar to its daily inhabitants, but it is the performers in relation to this which establish a dynamic tension, pose a dramatic question, scramble the status quo.

Hailing from New York, Tom Pearson and Zach Morris have sought to find the historical and contemporary commonalities between their home and Hong Kong. In both cases, New York and Hong Kong have always been changing, dynamic, mercantile and maritime – where citizens gathered in the interest of achieving success, sparking perpetual innovation due to each city’s unique position as a threshold. We feel this is especially relevant to TaiKoo Place – a newly re-invented site built upon a vibrant past.

Our work begins when a motley group arrives, clad in garments simultaneously evoking fashions of the Industrial Age and contemporary urban couture – in shades of sugary blues, whites and greys. As they move about the street, their relationships to the space and to one another develop and unfurl.

In frequently poignant and often humorous moments of group locomotion or ritualised urban routine, there is the familiar feeling of waiting with certainty, moving with clear but separate intentions, of short gestures and succinct expressions. Music is played live on a portable melodica that is operated by an iron worker’s bellows, and the score (both live and recorded) evokes cabaret, industrial sound, music box and pop. By the time the piece resolves and the individuals have settled into their surroundings, the performers seem less a part of the past and more of a hybrid between past and present while the strangeness becomes more familiar, for both the performers and the audience.

Third Rail Projects

Based in New York, Third Rail Projects dedicated to bringing art to the public through an array of media. Tom Pearson and Zach Morris are Co-Artistic Directors of Third Rail Projects. Its mission is to provide a central organizational hub that enables its artistic directors and affiliated artists to: develop accessible projects and integrate them into the broader public sphere; engage local, national, and international communities; utilize art as a vehicle for positive social change; further the forms in which they work; and provide education through performance and residency programs.

Tom Pearson and Zach Morris work in a variety of media that includes contemporary dance, site-specific performance, film, visual art, and large-scale installations. Each work introduces its own movement and/or visual vocabulary, defined by the parameters of the subject, site, and performance environment. The work ranges from the surreal to the absurd, and part of their creative project includes an examination of performance in unexpected urban situations. Tom Pearson and Zach Morris create dense, evocative worlds that illuminate the transient and the transformational, using movement abstracted from and coupled with everyday action. Site-specific explorations seek to mine public spaces for hidden meaning and to engage unwary and unsuspecting passersby.

If you wish to know more about Third Rail Projects, please visit the following official website:
http://thirdrailprojects.com/projects.html