Easy Listening for The Hard of Seeing

Final screening: July 24, 2021 | 6 – 9PM
Location: 18/F Grand Marine Center

Empty Gallery is pleased to present a contemporary re-staging of Easy Listening for The Hard of Seeing. Originally mounted by Xper.Xr in 1998, Easy Listening was a six-night screening series which brought together an eclectic mixture of experimental cinema, video art, and noise music in a celebration of the protean and unruly nature of these marginalized practices. A perverse pedagogical exercise cobbled together from Xper’s personal collection of obscure VHS tapes, the screenings were intended as part exposure therapy, part inspirational missive; an attempt to open younger minds in the territory to the diverse pathways of creative practice available to them.

While a brief glance at the original event’s line-up serves to reveal the titular ‘Easy Listening’ as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the amount of harsh noise tapes on view– including obscure gems from Osaka-based label Augen– ‘Hard of Seeing’ refers to Xper’s long-standing frustration with his audiences in artistically conservative Hong Kong. Over the course of three nights during the next few months, Empty Gallery will present a reimagined version of these seminal events, screening concert footage of musicians such as Masonna and Diamanda Galas alongside works by Fischli & Weiss and Hermann Nitsch.