Turbo
Alvin Luong – 2021
Turbo is a video project about life after The Great Recession of 2007/08.
On a stormy night in 2007, a teenage boy named Brett ‘Turbo’ Matthews lost control of his sports car and drove off the side of a cliff. Turbo descended through the air and crashed into a building housing financial instruments. He was killed upon impact and his body was unidentifiable amongst the burning car wreckage.
That same night, financial markets began to crash, becoming what we now know as The Great Recession. The reconstruction and resurrection of global financial institutions by state governments during The Great Recession would have the unintended consequence of also reconstructing and resurrecting Turbo. Although spared from death, Turbo was now cursed to live with the behavioral impulses of a sports car. During day time, Turbo lives in frustration because he can only communicate through car sounds that he makes with his mouth. At night time, Turbo enters into hallucinations where he is free to drive, however these hallucinations always end with a car accident.
Turbo was on display in the State of Flux Gallery from October 19, 2021 to December 4, 2021.
About the Artist
Alvin Luong
Alvin Luong (梁超洪) creates artworks based on stories of human migration, land, and dialogues from the diasporic working class communities that he lives and works with. These stories are combined with magic realism, humour, and biography to produce artworks that reflect upon issues of historical development, political economy, and social reproduction; and how these issues intimately affect the lives of people.
In 2017, Luong was awarded the OCADU Off-Screen Award for best new media installation at the Images Festival (Toronto). In 2018, Luong was Artist-In-Residence at IOAM (Beijing) and lectured at the Institute for Provocation (Beijing). In 2019, the artist exhibited at Boers-Li Gallery (Beijing), was invited to pursue research at HB Station Contemporary Art Research Center (Guangzhou), and screened and lectured at Gudskul (Jakarta). In 2020, the artist screened at China Millennium Monument Art Museum (Beijing), produced a video program with Guangdong Times Art Museum (Guangzhou), and was commissioned by The Bentway and the City of Toronto. In 2021, the artist exhibited at The New Gallery (Calgary), published a co-written book with The New Gallery Press (Calgary), screened at The Polgygon Gallery (Vancouver), and was Artist-InResidence at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto).