Exhibition:
'The Game is Killing the Game' by David Chancellor, Hong Kong
June, 2014
The Salt Yard, an independent art space, will exhibit David Chancellor’s “The Game Is Killing The Game”, a documentary series on hunting safaris that he photographed in South Africa over the years. Since the beginning of the 20th century, East African hunting safaris has became a fashionable pursuit among members of the privileged classes in Europe and the United States. It was also a source of revenue for the British colonial government and produces a group of professional hunters who especially served these privileged classes. Big-game hunting is still vibrant recently but it now exists in the form of the so-called game ranching that habitats of livestock farming are turned into venues for wild animals in captivity and places for tourists enjoying hunting. These ranches are now popular in South Africa and are authorized in many African countries. The documentary series of David Chancellor fully revealed the various perspectives of South African hunting safaris, including the hunter and the hunted as well as the displaying of stuffed animals as trophies. People hunted in order to fill their stomachs or make a living in the past but now they hunt for pleasure. Chancellor’s works call for a reflection of this ancient and uncivilized “sport” when animal right is a hot topic in the globe.
