GRANDPA TANG

I have been living in my village for a long time. It is said that it has nearly 800 years of history, as one of the oldest walled villages in Hong Kong. As the only child in my family, I am too fortunate to have room to observe, perceive, touch and play with traits and conflicts within the community and, at the same time, witness how external elements gradually or rapidly change their environment and surroundings. I am indeliberate yet willing to be the witness of this place, of lives and things, and of my own, in order to illustrate emotions of different chapters.

The two works presented at the 21st Biennial talk about two persons. Grandpa Tang talks about my grandfather, as well as ancestors in my village who were real, yet no longer existing; I Call you Nancy is about my fictitious sister, as if she had existed. These artworks are all derived from living experiences. But I don’t regard them as artworks, though they represent a certain moment, a certain period of time, by putting thoughts into certain imaginations. They are thereby transformed and demonstrated, as echoes of everyday life. 

Videos are usually part of my installations, yet they can be used independently. In Grandpa Tang, lens movement or frozen frames attempted to represent my physical state and vision of the village. Shooting and trimming footages in the editing process gave this project a clearer context and rhythm. In I Call You Nancy, the video hadn’t shown the conversation and coordination with my mother, which were deliberately left out, to our imagination. For the general public, this video may be lyrical, but for my mother it was a treatment for the soul.

In a statement to the PLATFORM:VB