The connection between an exhibition and its installation space can define a show. Even the most carefully curated shows may, in the wrong environment, result in an unpleasant experience. But such is not the case for “The Interstitial” at Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong SOHO, whose space compliments the works of two young Hong Kong artists, Alan Kwan and Kenny Wong. The show utilizes technology and virtual media—through video screens, mechanical installations and even a video game—to create a dialogue exploring memory and emotion. The stark, techno-dystopian ambiance of the exhibition is amplified by the spacious, stark white, two-story gallery space that dwarfs the small, complex mechanisms and robotically moving parts of the two artists’ works.

Wong’s suspended sculpture, dist.solo (2016), boasts a small digital screen hanging off a thin rod, counterbalanced on the opposite end by a triangle that methodically sways back and forth like a pendulum. On the screen, viewers see different close-ups of a woman’s face as the camera glides across her features, as if relaying the video feed in sync with the pendulum swings. The fleeting details provide momentary connections between the viewer and the subject, reflecting the rapid and impermanent connections made in the everyday. At the same time, such glimpses of the woman render this engagement feel voyeuristic.

While Wong’s pendulum makes for a disjointed image, Kwan’s interactive single-player videogame The Hallway (2016) was also disorienting. Building upon feelings of isolation and hopelessness, the player of the game assumes the role of a five-year-old child locked out of his apartment by his father and left to roam the hallways. The game begins with a door being shut in the player’s face and the wail of a small child in the background. The player is then left to wander the halls and navigate through various generic doors, all of which eventually lead back to the first hallway. The powerful rejection evoked in this virtual world stirs feelings of insecurity that are common during formative years of one’s childhood.