Watch Now: Sung Tieu, 'Moving Target Shadow Detection' (2022)
The 2021 Frieze Artist Award commission continues the artist’s ongoing research into the psychological dimension of warfare, acoustic weaponry, and its relationship to Cold War ideologies
The 2021 Frieze Artist Award commission continues the artist’s ongoing research into the psychological dimension of warfare, acoustic weaponry, and its relationship to Cold War ideologies
Moving Target Shadow Detection (2022) is a new moving-image work by Sung Tieu, the recipient of the Frieze Artist Award 2021, co-produced and co-commissioned by Forma and Frieze.
Modelled and rendered in 3D, the film reconstructs the entire interior of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, the site of the first-known instance of a supposed sonic attack, which collectively became known as the ‘Havana Syndrome’. First reported by CIA staff in the Cuban capital in 2016, the syndrome includes a range of unexplained disorders ranging from nausea, fatigue and memory loss to brain injuries resembling concussions.
In Tieu’s film, CCTV camera footage and images taken by a nano drone lead from the hotel’s lobby to an occupied hotel room, where the viewer is confronted with classified documents and news reportages of the recent Havana Syndrome attacks around the world.
Exploring timely questions relating to information systems, surveillance, as well as sonic and psychological warfare, the film problematizes the recent evolution in military technologies and how these silent advancements continue to expand its pervasive presence, causing a multitude of yet unknown effects.
Sung Tieu is an artist based in Berlin. Forthcoming solo exhibitions this year include Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut, Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna and MUDAM, Luxembourg.
