Wong Kit Yi
Political Weather Magic Witches

With an introduction by Prem Krishnamurthy
Free and open to the public
P!, Ebersstrasse 3, 10827 Berlin, Germany

In Political Weather Magic Witches, artist Wong Kit Yi presents a lecture performance that extends her ongoing project about human interventions within the weather and the attempt to claim dominance over meteorological phenomena. Juxtaposing historical research, cross-cultural analysis, personal vignettes, and a new karaoke music video—a recurring form in her practice—Political Weather Magic Witches asks which is harder to modify: the weather or people.

“But what does it really mean to control or modify weather within or beyond political borders? Clouds, like people, can float across borders—perhaps much more easily than people. We can’t control the travel of a cloud by not issuing it a visa. It’s definitely not hyperbolic to say that the movement of people across borders is a pressing political concern, both in Hong Kong, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. The concept of the ‘nation-state’ is bounded—it begins and it ends. Its borders might shift over time, but out there is the line—both socially and physically—that creates an ‘us’ and a ‘them’…” —Wong Kit Yi

Wong Kit Yi (b. Hong Kong) lives and works between Hong Kong and New York. Her artistic interests focus on odd scientific findings and the dysfunctional marriage between science and pseudoscience. She researches genetics, DNA technology, mythology, Japanese manga, meteorological interventions, models of ownership/leasing, and the biology of aging and immortality. Wong’s solo shows include Magic Wands, Batons and DNA Splicers, Art Basel Hong Kong (2018), and Futures, Again, P!, New York (2017). Her work has been included in exhibitions at Surplus Space, Wuhan, China; Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, Riga; Para Site, Hong Kong; and the Queens Museum, New York.

Image caption: Wong Kit Yi, Still from Hong Kong Weather Modification Office (Square cloud), 2019. Courtesy the artist | 黃潔宜，《香港人工影響天氣辦公室（方形雲）》，2019. 圖片由藝術家提供