Short film, 2020. 28 mins.
Never Rest/Unrest is a hand-held short film by Tiffany Sia about the relentless political actions in Hong Kong, spanning early summer to late 2019. The experimental short is an adaptation of the artist's practice of scaling oral history, reconsidering the vertical 16:9 aspect ratio as a vernacular form in contemporary moving image to frame urgency, first-person perspective and distance. Never Rest/Unrest takes up the provocation of Julio Garcia Espinosa's "Imperfect Cinema" on the potential for anti-colonial filmmaking, aiming towards an urgent, process-driven cinema that is politically counter to perfect form and technique, articulating a form that "disappears into everything". Resisting dominant narratives of crisis pushed by news journalism or propaganda, crisis poses ambiguous, anachronistic and often banal time. Subtitles are intentionally omitted as a means of interrogating the cultural proximity or distance of the viewer from Hong Kong.
“Breathing Cameras: Tiffany Sia,” Tiffany Sia in Conversation with Andrea Lissoni. Mousse Magazine, Spring 2021.
"Tiffany Sia: Embracing the Doomscroll" by Herb Shellenberger. Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, 2020.
“Breathing in The Invisible: Polly Lim on Tiffany Sia at Artists Space, New York.” Texte zur Kunst, April 9, 2021.
Lust, Caution: Catherine Damman on Tiffany Sia’s “Slippery When Wet.” ArtForum, Summer issue 2021.
"Resisting the Spectacle—Tiffany Sia’s Never Rest/Unrest" by Sasha Cordingley. ART PAPERS, Spring 2021.
"Modes of Resistance: Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival 2020" by Marius Hrdy. Brooklyn Rail, 2020.
"The Shortest Distance to Empathy" by Jaime Chu. Spike Art Magazine, #66 Winter 2020/21. Print only.
"Slippery When Wet: Tiffany Sia's Poetry of Lived Time" by Emily Verla Bovino. Ocula, February 24, 2021.
MoMA Documentary Fortnight – New York, NY
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival – Berwick-upon-Tweed, UK
San Diego Asian Film Festival – San Diego, CA
Prismatic Ground – New York, NY
Cabaret Voltaire – Zurich, Switzerland
Chen's Remote – New York, NY