Haunting images. Dark spaces. Hypnotic soundscapes. Tong Niu is a London-based multidisciplinary artist creating ethereal moving-image works and installations that explore memory and the ways in which our experiences are increasingly shaped by technology. To do so, she draws on “spectral ethnography”, a research method concerned with the “ghosts” of culture – unresolved histories, lingering traumas and absent presences that continue to shape everyday life. This approach has led to international recognition, including exhibitions at the London Design Festival in the UK, Wuxi Museum in China, Korea’s Changwon International Art Festival, and Sol de Paris Gallery in France. She is a Red Dot Design Award winner and was nominated for the JTOP 10 Emerging Artists of the Year at the Asian New Generation Art Exhibition.
Niu takes an audio-led approach to building immersive environments, often colliding sound with other disciplines, like photography, to create something new and impactful. In Where Bells Wander, for example, she mixes abstracted images of flowers with sound and light, creating an intriguing viewing experience that evokes “dreams and fading memory.” In doing so, she follows in the footsteps of renowned contemporary artists like Ryoji Ikeda (b. 1966), who transforms data into electronic musical scores and jaw-dropping visual experiences. Like Niu, Ikeda’s practice is grounded in research, producing works like test pattern (2008-), which converts text, sounds, photos and files into barcode-like flashing walkways of 0s and 1s. His exhibits are spectacular, with light patterns strobing, flowing and scanning all around the audience.
Niu’s moving-image piece Peach Blossom Island creates a similarly awe-inspiring experience, albeit more soothing than Ikeda’s (at times) overstimulating work. It draws inspiration from Otona Maki, a Japanese healing practice which involves wrapping the body in a soft cloth to create a “womb-like” sense of enclosure. This is said to provide several benefits, including pain relief and posture correction, as well as deep relaxation. In Niu’s film, figures adorned in bold wearable sculptures (viewers might be reminded of Alexander McQueen or Comme des Garçons), navigate a shadowy, void-like space, with water underfoot.
Glimmers of light refract across the dark pools, whilst geometric shapes are projected onto bodies and walls. It’s a mesmeric and stylish film, which contains a deeper message about freedom and stability in today’s world. “In modern society, instead of being free as individuals, people are caught in the paradox of freedom, filled with loneliness, powerlessness and a sense of unease,” the artist explains. “Peach Blossom Island asks: when we are tired of the chaos and confusion, is there an ideal meditative space, an island hidden in the middle of the city, where we can temporarily immerse ourselves?” Through this immersive language of sound and image, Niu opens up space for reflection within the noise of contemporary life.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Tong Niu, Peach Blossom Island.
2. Tong Niu, Bell Roaming.
3. Tong Niu, Bell Roaming.
4. Tong Niu, Peach Blossom Island.
5. Tong Niu, Peach Blossom Island.
6. Tong Niu, Peach Blossom Island.
