Goethe-Institut presents Likenesses: Speaking with the Selves, a two-artist exhibition featuring Li-Ming Hu (New Zealand/NYC) and Charmaine Poh (Singapore/Berlin).
At the heart of the show is a shared experience: both artists achieved television fame in the 2000s. Hu appeared in New Zealand’s Shortland Street and Power Rangers RPM, while Poh starred in Singapore’s We Are R.E.M.. Coinciding with the unmoderated internet of Web 1.0, both artists experienced a great deal of prejudice and hate alongside their fame, often spilling beyond the screen into real life.
Through installation, performance, and video, Hu and Poh revisit these formative moments. Hu uses humor and absurdity to reflect on the performance of identity and the pressures on minoritized actors. Poh, in turn, draws on philosophy and emerging technologies such as chatbots and deepfakes to give voice to her younger self - saying now what she could not then.
Foregrounding the blurred boundaries between actor and character, Likenesses: Speaking with the Selves asks what it means to reclaim control of one’s image when rights are owned by corporations and intimacy is reshaped by social media.
