Samson Young
- Gallery Rotation
Sonata for Smoke
Sonata for Smoke (detail), 2020, revised 2021. Samson Young (Chinese, b. 1979). High-definition video, color, sound; 15:48 min. Courtesy Gallerie Gisela Capitain, Petzel Gallery, and Kiang Malingue Gallery. © Samson Young. Photo: Dennis Man Wing Leung
About The Exhibition
How do we take hold of what is impermanent? This question is at the heart of Sonata for Smoke. Samson Young created the work while at an artist residency at the Zen temple Ryosoku-in in Kyoto. In that setting, he choreographed a sequence of ritualistic actions to trigger the emission of smoke, recording the image and sounds of that ephemeral substance on video. Throughout, the equipment used to capture the smoke is included in the video’s frame. This brings into focus the labor of grasping a transitory substance.