With the Tai Kwun exhibition Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III featuring Ellen Pau’s work ending next month, she talks to Tatler about her journey from radiographer to acclaimed video artist
Artist, curator and researcher Ellen Pau has spent her life championing video artists in Asia, and is an influential force in the early development of Hong Kong’s arts scene. She founded the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, an annual event that consists of exhibitions, conferences, seminars and workshops, bringing art experiences to Hong Kong, in 1996. She is also behind Videotage, Hong Kong’s oldest video artist collective and earliest archive for media art, which she established in 1986.
Before her full-time career in the arts, she worked as a radiographer and mammographer at Queen Mary Hospital, and has a degree in diagnostic radiography from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU).
What was Hong Kong’s art scene like when you were growing up?
The cultural scene in Hong Kong really started in the 1960s. The government built City Hall in 1962, and then came the [now-defunct] Council for the Performing Arts. There were very few libraries and art centres. In terms of visual art, we mostly had artists from mainland China that did ink paintings. For dance, the City Contemporary Dance Company was the most modernised dance group we had. As a child, I lived near the Aberdeen Tunnel—and actually, at the time, there was no Aberdeen Tunnel, and Ocean Park didn’t exist yet. All I could do was go to the beach, supermarket or the cinema. I didn’t know any artists. Many people from my generation would go abroad to study arts and culture and then come back to Hong Kong. There wasn’t much of an arts scene here.
What are some of your early memories of art?
Between the ages of six and 11, I had very bad asthma. I didn’t go out and play like other children. When my family was out, I was home alone. I was quite lonely growing up. All these scenarios of life and death would come to mind. There were no bronchodilators at the time, so there wasn’t an immediate relief medicine for my shortness of breath. I felt like I was suffocating. I was always fighting for survival. Sometimes I would wonder, why don’t I just let go and give up the fight? I had to convince myself to continue to live. I wanted to live my life to the fullest and to distract myself [from my situation]. I improvised with things that were available to me, whether a camera or music deck.
When did you start to take your craft more seriously?
When I was 14 years old and a student at St Stephen’s Girls’ College, I got to experience working in a darkroom, manipulating light and photographic paper and doing post-production of photographs. I was very interested in it. When I went to PolyU, I joined drama, cinema and music clubs. I was a fan of electronic music and of British bands like Depeche Mode. I even did an exhibition called Music as a Lifestyle about how music influences different artforms; I included the late Vivienne Westwood and the punk movement. It wasn’t a very big exhibition but I enjoyed doing it.
You are a self-taught video artist. How did you develop your skills with such limited tools at the time?
I studied radiology, so I understood the electronic theory behind how to form a video image. In video, it’s about dealing with the electronic magnetic waves, which I’m very aware of. Video was a new toy for me [to play with]. Creating new works and taking care of patients have always been so important to me. [Both my careers] deal with images and it’s been my biggest interest and pleasure. My work has a lot of GIF-like videos and short moving images.
What is the story behind the establishment of the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival?
I worked at [private film club] Phoenix Cine Club between 1984 and 1986. At the time they [would give out] an award for short films; we received a lot of works from Asian and European artists. The awards would always go to the usual people. It felt quite meaningless and the management wondered what else they could do to improve the competition. I tried to push video, but I was an intern at the time [and didn’t have much influence]. I noticed many people treated video as a cheaper, easier form of film, which I didn’t agree with.
When the Phoenix Cine Club closed down, I thought, “Why don’t I create something that focuses on the video art form itself ?” So I built Videotage in 1986. We would do annual screenings of people’s video works. Then, with funding from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, we formed the Microwave Festival in 1996. That’s when I looked at the art and culture scene as a whole. I was thinking about the future development of art and technology in Hong Kong.
