Artist: Lee Kai Chung (1985)
Title: Theatre Exile
Year: 2020
Medium: Single-channel video, archive material and new original imagery
Duration: 7 minutes 33 seconds running time
Accession Number: US2021-11
Acquisition info: Using archive material and new original imagery, Theatre Exile is the fourth part of a pentalogy exploring displacement and diaspora. Lee took inspiration from his research of Jewish documentary filmmaker Gertrude Wolfson and Japanese film producer Nagamasa Kwakita. As an artist in exile, Wolfson hoped to film a documentary about her stateless compatriots in Shanghai to raise money for the war relief.
Lee Kai Chung uses historical events, political systems and ideologies to inform his artistic research.
Theatre Exile was commissioned on the occasion of Peer to Peer: UK/HK online Festival 2020 by Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Open Eye Gallery and University of Salford Art Collection.