Hot Shots

Siu Wai Hang’s ‘Hot Shots’ experiments with the use of a thermal temperature gun to produce a series of headshots ‒ an uncanny reminder of Alphonse Bertillon’s infamous photos of anarchists from which modern mugshots of criminals were developed. While the work offers a critique of ‘surveillance’ ’, it might also be said that the artist actually captures a part of others by using a thermometer to take their photos.

How does he justify that?

‘As each image is saved, it records a brief moment that has died,’ Siu Wai Hang explains. ‘We offer up so many such moments, so much personal information. All that are our past selves and are taken. How can we avoid this kind of ‘death’ in the future? How can we avoid leaving a trail of images this way?’