Akeroyd Collection

Works

Leung Chi Wo, My Name is Victoria, 2008

Messages from over 40 women named Victoria, that tell their individual stories of how and why they were named, are compiled as a monologue. This script is then voiced over the mundane scenes filmed during the artist's journey walking along Victoria Road from Kennedy Town, the border of Victoria, which was the capital of this former crown colony, to Aberdeen where the British landed for the first time in Hong Kong. The singular voice and unifying aspects of this video, such as the Franze Schubert piano music that plays continuously and the first person POV of the camera, giving the impression of a single roaming flaneur, give the impression that this is an account of a single person. The script becomes schizophrenic and contradictory in its details as the video progresses, however; at once emphatically denying the colonial overtones of the name, to later revealing a love of the historic Monarch of England. From being born in a hospital named The Victoria, to identifying David Beckham as a hero and so wanting to take his wife’s name. As a result, a simultaneously confused yet self-assured account of competing desires and references share space. Pop culture, history, geopolitics, colonialism, class, status, aspiration and views on Monarchy and British rule are realized as a cacophony of intersectional concerns. The video becomes touching personal perspectives of a multitude of people that reveals an innocence, and a vulnerability in how world events and histories shape perspectives of the self.

MediumSingle channel video (colour, sound, HDV PAL)
Duration21 minutes 30 seconds
Editionof 5 + 2 APs