The Unlocked Space

大門沒有上鎖

四部幻燈機投影的黃光及不定時換下一張的機械聲，重組了一個人去樓空的場景。這裡是已不再在香港實行的合作社建屋的房子，影像不僅記錄真實的現場，更是對這段歷史的詮釋——正如失去主人的物品，如無人理會的歷史，被人任意擺佈、改動、刪除和定義——反映了過渡的一種本質。

這個地點原本叫皇家廠，80年代前曾是爸爸偷渡來港時住了多年的木屋區；按照當時的地址，我來到了一個公務員合作社樓宇的廢墟。2016年，所有業權被中資投資公司購得，將發展成豪宅。

我想從散落一地的物件中分析那些被認為重要和不重要的痕跡，了解在建屋合作社的方法下如何凝聚「藏品」，這些被遺棄的物品又如何與今天的生活形成對照。用影像構建一條主觀的時間線，為建屋合作社牽連的歷史刻下一個注腳。

The Unlocked Space

The yellowish light from four slide projectors and the intermittent mechanical sound of changing slides depict an empty house. This house, built by a cooperative, represents a system no longer practiced in Hong Kong. The images do more than record the real scene; they construct a visual interpretation of history—like ownerless objects, like neglected history, freely manipulated, altered, deleted, and defined—reflecting the nature of transition.

This site, originally called Wong Ka Chong (meaning “the factory of the British colonial government” in Cantonese), was a cottage house district where my father lived for many years after he smuggled into Hong Kong before the 1980s. Following the old address, I found it is now an abandoned six-story Civil Servants’ Cooperative Building. In 2016, all properties were sold to a Chinese investment company, which plans to develop a high-rise luxury apartment here.

I aim to analyze the significant and insignificant traces from the scattered objects to understand the “collection” formed under the cooperative housing system and how the discarded items compare with today’s life. Using images, I construct a subjective timeline to leave a footnote for the Cooperative Building and its history.

Exhibition : WYNG Master Award 2017/18 - Transition