Hong Kong, November 27, 2015 – March 28, 2016, http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/APO/en_US/web/apo/about_oi.html
A space located in a Hong Kong heritage building, run by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. There is a strong sense of community engagement at this place with different educational and outreach programs on the schedule.
Upon entering the space, one cannot miss the large heap of soil, construction site refuse and other trash piled up in the middle of the courtyard – Song Dong’s Doing Nothing Garden. At first I thought it was part of the Before.After exhibition, as it also seemed to be touching on the before-after concept: A pile made from construction site rubbish from the neighborhood was to slowly transform into a place where new plants will grow. So far, a few discarded good fortune mini tangerine trees left over from Chinese New Year where the most colorful and lively element on the pile. A large neon sign placed on a corrugated metal fence that formed one side of the courtyard of the space read ”不做白不做 做了 也白做 白做也得做” in my translation leaning on the title of the work “Doing nothing has been in vain, doing something has been in vain too, doing something in vain must nevertheless be done.” The neon sign was quite beautiful and it also resonated with the neon sign that was part of Samson Young’s work. Lastly, seeing Song Dong’s work brought about a deja-vu, as I have seen this work at Documenta 13 in Kassel. That time, in the middle of the baroque garden, it actually looked out of place and out of context and I did not get it. This time it looked very much in the right place and at home.
Inside of the Oil Street building was the Before.After show, consisting of three artists’ works. L Sub, an artist collective of Pak Sheung-chuen, Lee Soen-long, Wo Man-Yee Wendy and Yim Sui-fong, presented an invisible work in the form of a one-night residency for interested artists doing invisible interventions. Samson Young showed his work “Stanley”, consisting of beach sand, a neon sign reading “Nothing we did could have saved Hong Kong. It was all wasted” and a number of photo prints of clouds with handwriting on top. The work was referencing a story of a nurse in Stanley concentration camp during the WW2 Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. This work was originally shown on the 17th floor of a Causeway Bay tower block, and although I haven’t seen it at that time I imagine the juxtaposition of a tall building with a beach (beach sand) inside must have been powerful. Here, placed at street level and in a room the size of a volleyball court, it felt a bit spatially constrained. On the other side, it was in a very strong dialogue with Song Dong’s work in the courtyard, as lettering in both works was spelling out almost the same. Last, there was Tung Wing-hong, a video artist. The main concept of the work on display was a kind of decomposition of the human body into parts and onto video screens. The space had a custom-built architecture making visitors aware of their own body size and position, within which video monitors were rotating, tilting and rocking at strange angles, displaying body parts (probably of the artist).
I don’t know if subliminally or consciously, but I could feel an obvious link to the failed Occupy Central movement, that took place one year before this exhibition. Before and after, doing nothing, doing something in vain… starting with Song Dong’s slogan, to Samson Young’s historical yet contemporary parallel, to L Sub’s invisible intervention to Tung Wing-hongs objectification of disassembly of the body into medially represented fragments, that seem to stand for the whole, even though they can hardly represent it’s wholeness. Doing something, doing nothing, what’s the point…? I can imagine that this may very well be the general post-occupy mindset among the more peaceful Hong Kong residents.
