Comprising edited sequences of historical and contemporary imagery and videos, both filmed and found footage from traditional as well as social media, Heat waves weaves together often contradictory narratives around the tropics. It depicts an abundant, yet poor paradise with energetic though lazy inhabitants. Images of palm trees are alternated with paintings by Gauguin, footage of hurricane and tropical storms and its survivors together with news items, weather reports and covers of jungle comics. In this video, Kent Chan examines the contexts, politics, and proliferation of different aesthetics of heat. Aesthetics that stems from regions of the globe coloured by their solar relations bestowing heat in abundance. Aesthetics that are often generalised - charge with vibrancy, vitality, and visual complexity - and which are increasingly mined at a time when the earth is simultaneously warming.
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