Can’t Touch This
joint exhibition
2021.3.09 - 2021.5.23
WMA Space, Hong Kong
curator : Angela Su
artists : Siu Wai Hang, Kenji Wong Wai Kin, Yim Sui Fong
「鑊鑊新鮮鑊鑊甘」展覽由視覺藝術家徐世琪Angela 發起，並展出三位藝術家蕭偉恆、王偉健和嚴瑞芳就當下的種種新常態創作出的新作。
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在疫情肆虐一整年間我們學到了什麼？我們學會了應付無常，學會了接受「鑊鑊甘」的消息，學會了靈巧地避開假新聞。有一剎那，我一廂情願地以為可以在體制崩離失敗之際改變世界。
然而，直至今天，制度仍然不動如山，政府封區不封關，大家繼續同心擴疫，憂心出行，安心出拳。我們唯有欣然接受「鑊鑊新鮮鑊鑊甘」的新常態，彷彿什麼都沒有發生一樣照常生活，同時意識到體制這個不美麗的東西依然絕不可碰。
我們邀請了三位視覺藝術家蕭偉恆，嚴瑞芳和王偉健，分別透過各自的影像作品嘗試回應城市研究學者黎穎詩發起的「1.5米」訪談計劃。
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當患者被追蹤及隔離，就好像變成了病毒的化身一樣，嘗試拒絕或逃避都注定徒勞無功。當羣眾運動突然轉變成社交隔離,過去和現在的自我越加撕裂,在這個恍似精神分裂的世界之中我們應當如何自處？絕望之為虛妄，正與希望相同。嚴瑞芳的《化身》是一個偽心理治療，是一眾迷途「化身」的明燈，幫我們尋回失落的記憶。
Facilitated by visual artist Angela Su, the show features new works of WMA alumni, Siu Wai Hang, Kenji Wong Wai Kin and Yim Sui Fong in response to the pandemic-driven world.
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Is there anything to learn from all that had happened in the year of the pandemic? For a brief moment, we had the illusion that the world was going to change as the system was cracking apart. We learned to cope with daily uncertainties and catastrophic news; we managed to manoeuvre our way around the minefield of disinformation.
We’ve adapted to a new normal while realising that the system is still untouchable.
The exhibition ‘Can’t touch this!’ is an extension of this interview project. Three visual artists, Siu Wai Hang, Yim Sui Fong and Kenji Wong Wai Kin were invited to create visual responses to the book project ‘Faces under Masks’ initiated by Chloe Lai, a journalist-turned-urbanist.
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To be tracked down and contained, an infected person is the personification of the disease itself. Anyone who rejects the system also faces the same consequence. How do we cope in a schizophrenic time when mass action turned abruptly into social isolation; when our past and present selves are torn further and further apart? Perhaps hope and despair are flip sides of the same coin. Yim Sui Fong’s Avatar is a pseudo- psychotherapy to retrieve lost memories, a beacon of lost ‘avatars’.
Read
Recollection and reconnection: Artists Kenji Wong and Yim Sui-fong’s search for community — by Hong Kong Free Press