Samson Young

Samson Young (born 1979)^[1] is a Hong Kong artist, working primarily in the mediums of sound performance and installations.^[2]

Samson Young, Songs for Disaster Relief, Hong Kong in Venice 2017

Samson Young performing at the Venice Biennale, 2017.

Early life and education

Samson Young was born in Hong Kong.^[1] 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, and his PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University in 2013.^[3]

He was an assistant professor in sonic art and physical computing at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Young is also the principal investigator at the Laboratory for Ubiquitous Musical Expression (L.U.M.E), and artistic director of the experimental sound advocacy organization Contemporary Musiking.^[4]

Work

While Young's background is in music composition, his work as an artist spans a broad range of media, including performance, sound, video, drawing, and wall transfers. Young's work is frequently political in nature, addressing military history and the British occupation of Hong Kong as subjects.^[5][6]

Nocturnal Music, the artist's 2015 exhibition at Team Gallery, 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 effects, which he broadcast locally via a pirate FM radio channel.^[7]

A 2015 drawing by Samson Young.

Career and recognition

In 2015, Young was the inaugural recipient of the BMW Art Journey Award^[8][9] and the Hong Kong Arts Centre Honorary Fellowship in 2018.^[10] Major exhibitions include A Dark Theme Keeps Me Here, I'll Play a Broken Music, at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 2017, Performa 19 in 2019, and the Hong Kong pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale.^[11][12]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

2024 -- Seeing Sound, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, New York^[13]

2021 – The World Falls Apart Into Facts, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan^[14]

2020 – MAM Collection 012: Samson Young, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan^[15]

2019 – Samson Young - It's a heaven over there, Centre A Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Vancouver, BC ^[16][17]

2018 – Songs for Disaster Relief World Tour, M+ Pavilion, Hong Kong^[18][19]

2017 – Furniture Music, Gallerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne, Germany^[20]

2017 – Songs for Disaster Relief, Hong Kong Pavilion, Venice Biennale^{[21][22][23][24]}

2016 – A Dark Theme Keeps Me Here, I'll Make A Broken Music, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany^[25][26]

2016 – The Mastery of Language Affords Remarkable Power, Experimenter Gallery, Kolkata, India^[27]

2016 – Orchestrations, Connecting Space (presented by Para Site), Hong Kong^[28][29]

2015 – Pastoral Music, Team Gallery, New York City^[30][31]

2015 – Video Program: Samson Young, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan

2015 – Avant-garde on speed, TKG+ gallery, Taipei^[32][33]

2015 – Pastoral Music, Discovery, Art Basel Hong Kong^[34]

2015 – MTVs, a.m. space, Hong Kong^[35]

2014 – I wanted to see everything: the Liquid Borders Project, a.m. space, Hong Kong^[36]

2013 – On the Musically Beautiful, Goethe-Institute, Hong Kong^[37]

2011 – Machines for Making Nothing, Cogut Center for Humanities, Brown University, USA^[38]

Awards

2019 - Prix Ars Electronica (Sound Art and Digital Music Category), Award of Distinction^[39]

2018 - Honorary Fellowship, Hong Kong Art Centre^[40]

2015 - BMW Art Journey Award^[41]

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^[4]

2012 - Japan Media Art Festival (Interactive Art Category), Jury Selection Award^[4]

2009 - New York Society for New Music, Brian M. Israel Prize

2007 - Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award^[4]