Zhengxin Li

"Hunting ground - Public gardens at night"

Section MS8, Gabriella Hirst

Keywords: moving image

My work consists of documentary videos recorded by infrared trail camera, which critique the phenomenon of nighttime closure of public gardens in London based on the research of the history of public gardens in London and field investigations.

Kensington Garden was selected as the site to investigate the issue. As one of the royal gardens, it was used as a hunting ground in history, which presents a link between the site and the media and shows the government’s control of public gardens from past to the present. The infrared camera, a media which is usually used for military and hunting purposes, was selected to record how gardens are locked and what happens before and after the enclosure in order to express the government's control over public spaces and the “hunting relationship” created from it. Three kinds of hunting relationship arose during the recording process: when people were asked to leave by the guard, the guard acted as the “hunter” and the public were “hunted”, when I-the recorder were asked to leave, I was “hunted” and the guard is the “hunter”, when I used the infrared trail camera to record the process, I acted as a “hunter”, and the public and the guard were “hunted”. Audience can see and realise how the “hunting relationship” is changed and be presented through my work and how it interacts with the surrounding environment, which may raise people’s thoughts about the public rights and government’s control over public spaces.