Hangnail
2024
6’53”
Single-channel video, HD, with sound
Spanning film photographs, scanned images of pages and book covers, 3D animation, and 2D animation, Hangnail critically explores the fetishisation and romanticisation of feminine death, delving deep into the complex legacy of fictional heroines across various art forms and within the digital realm. The work exposes the pervasive occurrence of the deaths of young girls and rethinks the unrealistic portrayals perpetuated by late male literary and artistic figures. The artist examines society’s fixation on the concept of “reality” and its perception of “truths” and how the dominant systems of power have historically exploited the concept of “fictionality” to fulfil fantasies and fetishisations.
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Official Selections & Screenings:
Beijing International Short Film Festival (China)
CUT! Experimental Film Festival (Macau)
[Best Student Experimental Award] Tirana International Film Festival (Albania)
Proyector Video Art Festival (Spain)
Videoex Festival (Switzerland)
42nd Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival (Germany)
Objectifs Women in Film & Photography (Singapore)
FONLAD Festival
[Finalist] D-NORMAL/V-ESSAY (Hong Kong)
Exhibitions:
Ripple Effects: Colours of Humanity Arts Prize 2024, Goethe Institut, Hong Kong [2024]
Monitoring, Kasseler Kunstverein im Fridericianum, Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kassel, Germany [2025]
Tell me how you crush, Coco Galerie / Shophouse, presented by Chanel Art & Culture, Hong Kong [2026]
Unruly Mirrors, presented & organised by Goethe Institut, Almaty, Hong Kong, Beijing, Seoul, Tashkent, Tokyo and Ulaanbaatar [*upcoming 2027]
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Written and created by
Hou Lam Tsui
Music & Sound Design
Sky Kung
3D Animation
Zhang Riwen
2D Animation
Hou Lam Tsui
Florence Yuk-ki Lee
Voice
Hayley Wu
Editorial Support
Tsz Wai Pun
Full version available upon request.