Flash Memory
Video installation, colour, silent
Dimensions variable
Paul Wong 2015
Flash Memory is the result of all images that the artist has uploaded to iPhoto. The photographs have not been altered or edited. The images are presented chronologically according to iPhoto logic.
27,323 pictures are mashed into an intense viewing experience. Photographs flash on and off at 15 frames per second, 900 images per minute. It is a chronology of four years of incessant picture taking of people, places and things: part journal, diary, sketchbook, research and documents of the everyday at home, studio, streets, art events, travels, weddings, funerals, birthdays, gatherings with artists, friends and family, celebrations and festivals.
Flash Memory is a four-channel video installation. Each loop presents a different year in pictures: 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
2008 5:31 min., 4,876 images
Vancouver Chinese New Year, Beijing Summer Olympics, Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Times Square, Chelsea Hotel, President Obama, Montreal, Ottawa, National Gallery…
2009 8:36 min., 7,688 images
Excursions to Alberta recording the vaults of the Glenbow Museum and documentation of the Gay Rodeo. Prominent is Tokyo, Montreal, Ottawa and Nicaragua. Openings at On Main Gallery, a U2 concert, the Powell Street Festival, Wreck Beach and various road trips…
2010 8:41 min., 7,759 images
An extraordinary year that features Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, recognizable and not-so-recognizable landmarks: Vancouver Art Gallery, Robson Square, Sun Yat-Sen Gardens, Bloedel Conservatory, Mountainview Cemetery, the Coachella and Squamish Music Festivals and parties…
2011 7:40 min., 6,810 images
This was the year of the endless summer that began in Havana Cuba, art installations, Waldorf Hotel, Montreal, Governor General Awards in Ottawa, Richmond Cultural Centre, Stanley Cup Riots, a cruise ship wedding, Kootenays, On Main Gallery, Halloween, San Francisco, Chinese Family Christmas and screenshots…
Flash Memory is a project that was developed over several years. It was first exhibited as a single-channel work titled Last Year, this was shown as part of CUE: Artists’ Videos at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of the Cultural Olympiad, presented on a large outdoor LED screen that was seen by tens-of-thousands during the 2010 Winter Olympics.
In 2011 Cinevolution commissioned the three-channel Flash Memory as the feature work at the annual Your Kontinent Film & Media Arts festival. This work comprised of 2008, 2009 and 2010 was created as a site-specific three-channel video projection for the atrium of the Richmond Cultural Centre. In 2012 this work was shown on video monitors at the Arbutus Gallery, Kwantlen University.
In 2015 this work was expanded into four-channels that now includes 2011.
