Silent Photos, Howling Memories.

Having been a photojournalist since 1995, frequently travelling between Hong Kong, China and Macau, I have accumulated an archive of images in film and digital over the past 20 years. In time, my memory of these individual images fused with my subconscious into different amalgams. By re-presenting these memory amalgams in image form I try to comprehend the working of my deeper consciousness and so doing that I shall re-create new memories, which in turn form my new consciousness, and the new me…

‘Urban Disease’, according to the definition on Wikipedia, refers to the kind of disease that occurs when a country becomes more industrialised and humans have longer lives. This kind of disease includes mental illness, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, obesity, etc.

However, these are not the only diseases in our city. Living in Hong Kong and going out every day to see the world, you will soon realise that disease is everywhere.

It is not only people that are getting ill, but the whole city. However, seeing different things and thinking that they are ill, am I the one who is really ill?

After all, what are diseases?

Walls are partitions, and a form of protection.

Over time, cracks will begin to accumulate, like strands of memory; some can be easily noticed, some require closer observation, and some remain hidden under a new coat of paint. Like a middle-aged man who seldom speaks of himself, it will take time to notice hints of his inner thoughts. I try to reveal through these photographs my inner thoughts to invite viewers to contemplate on theirs.

This photo exhibition is inspired by Liu Yichang’s short novel The Turmoil, about the Hong Kong 1967 Leftist Riots.

The Turmoil describes objects from the 1967 riots. Through developing stories of different objects, the novel reflects the relationship between the people and objects in the city.

Living in Hong Kong during this turbulent time, we once again ask the emotionless objects to speak for themselves. Will the story of ‘objects’ be isolated from that of the ‘people’ and reveal another system of values?

If only we could wander around Hong Kong through time to document the transient places and faces before all is gone and forgotten.

Beginning their journey in Beijing, image makers Zero and Hailey illustrate the differences between how places used to be and how they are today by juxtaposing the present with old photographs in the same frame.

Connecting the present with their pasts in 108 photographs: Are we rediscovering ourselves or are we saying farewell to the past?

I often feel powerless in the darkness. Light, containing energy and vitality, lets me feel the meaning of life again and guides me to move on when I am surrounded by helplessness in dark times. It comes from nature or from my relationships with family, friends, or loved ones. It leads me to create rather than to destroy, to become rather than escape. Long after, colour will have faded, family will have gone, love will have vanished, friendship will have come apart, by the time my breath stops. Yet, there will still be light, shining till eternity. So, I make this record of light and present it in this exhibition. I hope it can provide light for others in the darkness.

This is a photographic series reflecting on the influence of family on the artist’s sense of self: Hung was born and raised in a conservative Chinese family that had full control of her early life with a series of ‘rules’ she had to follow. Many things she did seemed unpleasant to her family, as if she broke those rules. This lifestyle made Hung feel a sense of cold violence; she also felt the lack of love. As Hung grew up, she realized that many family rules and values were naturally applied on her daily practices, although she didn’t agree with many of them.

For this series, Hung collected and photographed objects that hold family memories. She uses the forms and colours of the objects to refer to the familial pressure she has experienced, with the work also revealing a desire of freeing herself from the family rules.

I have been living with depression for several years now, battling with emotional ups and downs. Since undergoing treatment, I started isolating my feelings from the surroundings. I am not sure if this is a side effect of the medication or simply a change in my psyche, but I have been in a constant state of calmness, grief and solitude. Such feelings are hard to articulate using words, which is why I choose to express them through photography, so as to reveal to the world my inner thoughts.

When concussion happens, what can we do besides to be caught up in the rupture of reality?

The show includes a body of image-based works related to the experiences of the daily situations in disruption. I intend to express the incomprehensible connections among the layered realities of living related to our feelings and imaginations.

The works are attempts to stretch the possibility of images by exploring the materiality of the medium and intermedia possibilities. The works are developed through experimental exercises to investigate the relationship of movement and time in images, light and space.

Butterflies on the Wheel and Starry Night began with videography and developed to become intermedia works in different forms. Butterflies on the Wheel is about the shattered, moving images are broken-down into frames, then projected and reflected to unfold fragments of flesh and blood. Starry Night is the remains of the glorious nights from the past, when hyper motion is frozen in frames, faint blinks in black and white are left.

Mirage and Floating Bed are created from single images and progressed in their unique trajectories. Mirage is an illusion that forms a tunnel from an image, and leads a never-ending path. The Floating Bed controlled by involuntary movements, is unable to balance its window with a view of the ocean.
The only image-less work The Longest Night transforms the rhythm of darkness by stretching, cropping and repeating the sound of late-night live broadcasts.

The Ashes of Tomorrow invites audience to immerse in the overlapping present and past among and beyond the imagery. The exhibition is an experiential journey orchestrated with the vibrations and stillness from within.

The show includes a body of photographic works related to the experiences of imagined conditions of a post-concussion syndrome, where the usual daily situations are disrupted. I intend to express the incomprehensible connections among the layered realities of living related to our feelings and imaginations.

The project is an attempt to stretch the possibility of images by exploring the materiality of the medium and intermedia possibilities. The works are developed through experimental exercises to investigate the relationship of movement and time in images, light and space.