MATTHEW
Tsang Man Fu

This video artwork recorded black coloured ice melting onto and staining paper. Through a process of experimentation with different papers, size, number and placement of ice cubes, I had pre-prepared the materials for the video. The particular paper was scored in a mathematical grid format. The ice cubes were laid out in the grid as regularly as I could within a limited time and with minimal handling. 

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Although I controlled the set up, there was still an element of uncertainty in the process leading up to the final product. The outcome could only partially be predicted, the final image depended on the flow of melt water and the surface texture and absorbency of the paper on the day. I wanted this to capture the almost oppositional ideas of the certainty of the process (ice melting) along with the uncertainty of the final image (coloured stain patterns). The idea was to convey both the concept of uncertainty during the creative process itself, as well as the minutiae of unpredictable variables within a stable overall process of change. This could also stand as a metaphor for the human variables of change, our individual uniqueness, set in a framework of inevitability, the regenerative life cycle of which each of us is just a part.