In this fixed-point stop-motion animation, ‘The Cave with a Wheeze,’ Lau draws one carbon-black being after another on a 2m x 3m white wall using charcoal. The beings walk from the edge to gather in the centre of the frame. Depicted, documented and erased – Lau repeats this cycle with each step of each being. The crowd of beings grow until the wall is filled with hundreds of them. Lau then begins wiping the charcoal dust with her hands, attempting to revert the wall back to its original white state. The clock in the upper left corner reflects the time in reality of Lau’s working (starting at noon), in parallel to the condensed time in the animation. In the summer of 2020, Lau spent a lot of time in her studio contemplating this white wall. The idea of ‘filling the wall with bodies’ began to form, bringing us the work ‘The Cave with a Wheeze.’

Summer 2020, The idea of ‘filling the wall with bodies’ glowed as she stayed in the studio, and in there she brought us the work ‘The Cave with a Wheeze’.

《洞壁與哨鳴》為一部定點定格動畫，影像在一幅2×3米的白牆上展開，劉氏以炭枝逐幀描繪一個個炭黑色的小人，和他們從白牆邊沿走向畫面中心的路徑。動畫中的人每走一步，劉氏都在同一幅牆上描繪、記錄再擦掉，不斷重複，直至白牆聚滿了人，再用手（指尖、掌心、指節……）將牆上的炭粉逐點抹掉，嘗試將已經填滿的牆身還原。畫面左上角的時鐘，顯示了劉氏每天於現實世界繪製動畫的時間（每天正午12時開始）與動畫中濃縮了的影像時間作為對照。      

2020年夏天，長期留於工作室內的她，開始浮現「想用身體填滿眼前這幅牆」的想法。劉氏仗著密集而重複的身體和精神勞動，最終完成了作品《洞壁與哨鳴》。

Born in Hong Kong in 1991, Jess gained her BA (Honours) in Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong in 2014. Jess’ work applies themes such as narrative fragments, body memory and focus on iterative manual processes and the aggregation of time. Jess’ work involves a wide range of media – videos, animation, installation – it explores the uniqueness and the malleability of each different medium, for example, outlining the fiction and reality with stop-motion animation. Her iconic works are created through the accumulation of labour and time. The material is constantly reorganised, shaped and dismantled in the world of video, connecting and extending with the memory and imagination of the city as well as the individual self. At the same time, her works aim to break the cold impression of media art, to portray the temperature of people, the traces left by her body, and to emphasise the process of creation and imaging. 

Jess’ artworks have been exhibited and screened internationally in: Ars Electronica, Austria, Animatou – International Animation Film Festival, Switzerland, Image Forum Festival 2022, Japan, Two Temple Place, London, IFVA Media Art Festival, Hong Kong, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, West Kowloon FreeSpace, Hong Kong and etc. Jess was the selected artist of Tai Kwun Contemporary Artists’ Studio Residency 2020 and awarded the Nanying Prize from Taiwan 2022.