Video library is open

The Akeroyd Collection may be one of the world's great under-the-radar repositories of moving image. In 2023, Hong Kong banker and philanthropist Shane Akeroyd made the unconventional decision of sharing 200 videos from his library of 1,500 pieces with the public on a dedicated website, which also serves as a treasure trove of information about the artists. Aaditya Sathish, who curated the films from the collection screening at Art Central this year, reports that Akeroyd "also commissions a number of writers and curators to engage with the collection". "An evolving collection is exciting," he adds. "It is through patronage, scholarship, and exhibitions that art history is made."

The film quartet in Art Central's program includes Stephanie Comilang's science-fiction documentary Lumapit Sa Akin, Paraiso (Come to Me, Paradise), in which a drone spirit is summoned to Hong Kong on Sundays when migrant domestic helpers claim the city's public spaces. Rei Hayama's 8mm experimental film A Child Goes Burying Dead Insects follows the action described in the film's title several times over. Also included are ÆTHER(Poor Objects), Li Shuang's collage examining the connections between physical and digital spaces and reality; and Fatal Loins by Robert Sandler, which sees the artist play both romantic leads from the classic West Side Story in the 1961 film's iconic balcony scene - dressed as clowns.

Taken together, the video works explore shared spaces, how we perceive them and our places within them - themes that can be found elsewhere at the fair. "We looked at the works that I had already selected and ... chose a few that echoed with Art Central's larger program," Sathish says. "Thematically, they cover similar issues."