KENT CHAN

HEAT WAVES

(Two-channel video, ongoing series, 2021 - )

Heat Waves examines the contexts, politics, and proliferation of different aesthetics of heat. Aesthetics that stems from regions of the globe coloured by their solar relations bestowing heat in abundance. Aesthetics that are oft generalised - charged with vibrancy, vitality, and visual complexity - that are increasingly mined at a time when the earth is simultaneously warming.

Comprising edited sequences of historical and contemporary imagery and videos (both filmed and found footage from traditional/social media), which weaves together often contradictory narratives around the tropics. Its depictions as a diseased paradise, abundant yet poor, its people energetic though lazy, and its aesthetics dynamic but lacking order.