Unbearable Darkness Game Demo 2021
徐家輝 (CHOY Ka Fai)
2021 Unbearable Darkness Game Demo 2021
2021
Projection and lighting installation
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist
“Unbearable Darkness Game Demo 2020” is an experimental third-person, 4 non-action, docu-adventure game inspired by the afterlives of Butoh dance master Tatsumi Hijikata. It is a recollection of thoughts, movements and expeditions into the world of Butoh.
How does the digital, the virtual, the immaterial or non-human expressions collapse and expand the notion of wandering? “Unbearable Darkness Game Demo” wanders into a capsule of paranormal dance experience, of speculative documentary and rendered dreams.
“Unbearable Darkness” was first created in 2018 as a theatrical dance performance. The performance was created with a 3-year research process into the history of Japanese Butoh dance and cultural conditions of Japanese shamanism. The project itself engages with emerging technologies like motion capture, 3D visualization and game design to create the multimedia performance of dance on a stage.
Driven by his interest in exploring the conditions of the human body, multi-disciplinary artist Choy Ka Fai focuses his research on choreographic practices in Asia. Unbearable Darkness presents his investigation into Butoh, which arose in Japan at the end of the 1950s, encompassing a diverse range of techniques from dance, theatre, and movement. Choy traces the legacy of one of the key founders, Tatsumi Hijikata (1928–1986) who sought a new form of physical expression he referred to as ankoku butō (“dance of darkness”), delving into imageries of the grotesque and sickness of the human form.
"Unbearable darkness” proposes a choreographic proposition- How does a Ghost Choreograph? What are the technological possibilities to dance with Hijikata again? In his pursuit, Choy went to the extent of interviewing the spirit of Hijikata through an itako (Japanese shaman).
Artist description
CHOY Ka Fai is a Berlin-based Singaporean artist. He graduated with a M.A. in Design Interaction from the Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom.
His multidisciplinary art practice situates itself at the intersection of dance, media art and performance. At the heart of his research is a continuous exploration of the metaphysics of the human body. Through research expeditions, pseudo-scientific experiments and documentary performances, CHOY appropriates technologies and narratives to imagine new futures of the human body.
Choy’s projects have been presented in major institutions and festivals worldwide, including Sadler’s Wells (London, UK), ImPulsTanz Festival (Vienna, Austria) and Tanz Im August (Berlin, Germany). He was the resident artist at tanzhaus nrw in Düsseldorf (2017–19) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2014–15). In 2010, he was awarded the Young Artist Award by the National Arts Council, Singapore.