As part of and an extension of an exhibition In the name of Victoria, artist Warren Leung Chi Wo presented his project My name is Victoria in a limited edition of 300 elegant books. I was lucky to have one of them. Its content is the same as that of the video work, of women named Victoria telling stories about their names. This is a work to "explore the concept of preservation, not only of information but also the idea of one's identity in relation with others' expectation, perception and memory". "Victoria" can be a political topic in Hong Kong, but from Leung's work, many layers of meanings can be seen. One of them is gender ideologies concerned with nomenclature. We realize not only political implications carried by the name, but also expectation and perception of gender identity, from oneself or other people. The work is available online. I'd like to share a few quotes: Before I started working my friends called me Ah Hoi, a boyish nickname which I invented myself as I didn't consider myself as a feminine kind of girl. So I needed a different nickname to represent the person I wanted to be. I became different after I started working. Everyone changes! I found a more feminine side of myself, and accepted people calling me Victoria, which I wasn't so used to before. I wanted to have an unusual English name. I tried to check the dictionary and found out the meaning. Most of the English names for girls usually mean beautiful, cutie, etc. But, I think this name is different from others. It means Victory. Other than beauiful, I think girls should strive for whatever they want to. However, these friends in college started introducing me to their friends as "Vic", which I didn't like since it sounds too masculine to be the only name someone knows for me. I shortly thereafter switched back to Vicki with any new friends that I made. I was born without an English name and during school I've chosen "Stevie" as my "english name". I've chosen Stevie ever since, espeically after living in America for 5 years my Chinese name has somehow become "the past". The one problem is that Stevie is usually a guy's name and I'm a girl...so people always ask a lot of questions like, "why Stevie?" or, "but isn't it a guy's name?..." One night while out drinking with a friend we decided that we'll have a "party name" and I picked Victoria and have adopted that as my middle name since then.
Less

Aesthetics crosses disciplines. This man crosses disciplines and joins them into one. Talented souls do exist in the commercial world (and what is not commercial?). If you look closely, a brand name can't cheat you into buying, neither can it blind you to appreciating. The judgement lies in your own hands (brain). /Hedi Slimane's Diary/
Less