Sung Tieu
SUNG TIEU
Everything or Nothing
February 3 – April 16, 2022
hamburg
Moving Target Shadow Detection, 2022
Everything or Nothing starts on the ground floor of the gallery with the artist’s new video Moving Target Shadow Detection (2022). Commissioned by Forma and Frieze, it investigates the mysterious illness known as the Havana Syndrome. In 2016, U.S. State officials stationed in Cuba were the first to be diagnosed with the syndrome, which encompasses ailments such as headaches, dizziness, tinnitus, nausea or visual disturbances, with unclear causes. Intelligence services suspected attacks with powerful electromagnetic waves to be behind the reported health problems, with some theories suggesting sonic or acoustic weapons attacks.
Given her interest in inconspicuous surveillance systems, and new war technologies, her film goes back to where it all began: a room at the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana, where the first instance of Havana Syndrome was reported. The video reconstructs meticulously all details as a 3D animation. Surveillance cameras and Nano drone footage draw a path from the hotel lobby to a room, occupied by a member of the CIA, where viewers hear news reports about recent Havana Syndrome attacks around the world.
Sung Tieu, Moving Target Shadow Detection, 2022, HD animation and sound, 18 min 56 sec (Extract)
Exposure To Havana Syndrome, 2021
In the interest of her research on acoustic and psychological warfare, Tieu exposed herself to a reconstruction of the Havana Syndrome, which she found in court hearings, while scanning her own brain through MRI. These brain images become small-scale works analyzing the effects of such sonic weapons, which often remain undetected and unnoticed.
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Sung Tieu, Exposure To Havana Syndrome, Brain Anatomy, Sagittal Plane, 2021, Laser engravings on stainless steel prison mirror, 45 x 30 cm