Samson Young (born 1979) is a

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

artist, working primarily in the mediums of sound performance and installations.

Early life and education

Samson Young was born in Hong-Kong. He received both his BA degree in Music, Philosophy and Gender Studies and his M.Phil in Music Composition from

The University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public university, public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, it is the oldest Higher education in Hong Kong, tertia ...

, and his

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper ''Piled Higher and Deeper'' (also known as ''PhD Comics''), is a newsp ...

in music composition from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

. He was an assistant professor in sonic art and physical computing at the School of Creative Media,

City University of Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a world-class public research university located in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1984 as City Polytechnic of Hong Kong and became a fully accredited university in 1994. Currently, CityU is ...

. Young is also the

principal investigator In many countries, the term principal investigator (PI) refers to the holder of an independent grant and the lead researcher for the grant project, usually in the sciences, such as a laboratory study or a clinical trial. The phrase is also often us ...

at the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Musical Expression (L.U.M.E), and artistic director of the experimental sound advocacy organization Contemporary Musiking.

Work

While Young's background is in music composition, his work as an artist spans a broad range of media, including

performance A performance is an act of staging or presenting a play, concert, or other form of entertainment. It is also defined as the action or process of carrying out or accomplishing an action, task, or function. Management science In the work place ...

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

, drawing, and wall transfers. Young's work is frequently political in nature, addressing

military history Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians no ...

and the British occupation of Hong-Kong as subjects. ''Nocturnal Music,'' the artist's 2015 exhibition at

Team Gallery Team Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, with an additional project space in Venice, Los Angeles, California. It was founded by José Freire and Lisa Ruyter in 1996. Team has represented s ...

, centered on a performance, in which the artist sat at a desk for six hours every day, watching muted video footage of night-time airstrikes by the United States on the Middle East and re-creating the audio via

foley Foley may refer to: Places United States * Foley, Alabama * Foley, Florida, a community in Taylor County, Florida *Foley, Minnesota *Foley, Missouri *Foley Field, baseball stadium in Athens, Georgia *Foley Square in Manhattan Canada *Foley Island ...

effects, which he broadcast locally via a pirate FM radio channel.

Career and recognition

In 2015, Young was the inaugural recipient of the BMW Art Journey Award. Major exhibitions include ''A Dark Theme Keeps Me Here, I'll Play a Broken Music'', at

Kunsthalle Düsseldorf Kunsthalle Düsseldorf is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Düsseldorf. Building The present art centre was built in 1967 in Brutalist architecture by the architects Konrad Beckmann and Brockes. They used commercially available preca ...

in 2017, and the Hong-Kong pavilion at the

57th Venice Biennale The 57th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2017. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Christine Macel, the chief curator at the Centre Pompi ...

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2021 – ''The World Falls Apart Into Facts'', Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan 2020 – ''MAM Collection 012: Samson Young'', Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2019 – ''Samson Young - It's a heaven over there,''

Centre A Centre A (Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art) is a non-profit public art gallery in Vancouver committed to the research, production, presentation and interpretation of contemporary Asian art. It is the only public gallery ...

Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, BC 2018 – ''Songs for Disaster Relief World Tour,'' M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong 2017 – ''Furniture Music,'' Gallerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, Germany 2017 – ''Songs for Disaster Relief'', Hong Kong Pavilion,

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

2016 – ''A Dark Theme Keeps Me Here, I'll Make A Broken Music,'' Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany 2016 – ''The Mastery of Language Affords Remarkable Power,'' Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata, India 2016 – ''Orchestrations'', Connecting Space (presented by

Para Site Para Site () is an independent, non-profit art space based in Hong Kong. It was founded in 1996 by artists Patrick Lee, Leung Chi-wo, Phoebe Man Ching-ying, Sara Wong Chi-hang, Leung Mee-ping, Tsang Tak-ping and Lisa Cheung. It produces exhi ...

), Hong Kong 2015 – ''Pastoral Music'',

, New York City 2015 – ''Video Program: Samson Young'',

Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art The is an art museum founded in 1989. It is in Hijiyama Park in Hiroshima, Japan. The building was designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa. Representative collections Access * Hiroden Hijiyama-shita Station See also *Hiroshima Museum of Ar ...

, Japan 2015 – ''Avant-garde on speed'', TKG+ gallery, Taipei 2015 – ''Pastoral Music, Discovery'', Art Basel Hong Kong 2015 – ''MTV''s, a.m. space, Hong Kong 2014 – ''I wanted to see everything: the Liquid Borders Project'', a.m. space, Hong Kong 2013 – ''On the Musically Beautiful'', Goethe-Institute, Hong Kong 2011 – ''Machines for Making Nothing'', Cogut Center for Humanities, Brown University, USA

Awards

2019 - Prix Ars Electronica (Sound Art and Digital Music Category), Award of Distinction 2018 - Honorary Fellowship, Hong Kong Art Centre 2015 - BMW Art Journey Award 2013 - Artist of the Year (Media Art Category), Hong Kong Arts Development Council 2012 - Prix Ars Electronica (Sound Art and Digital Music Category), Honorary Mention 2012 - Japan Media Art Festival (Interactive Art Category), Jury Selection Award 2009 - New York Society for New Music, Brian M. Israel Prize 2007 - Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award

References

External links

Samson Young's website

Team Gallery

Profile of Samson Young
in

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

Profile of Samson Young in Edouard Malingue
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Samson 1979 births Living people Interdisciplinary artists Sound artists Princeton University alumni Alumni of the University of Hong Kong Hong Kong artists